Interesting
by luvindrewfuller
Summary: No one ever said training was fun but that didn't mean it couldn't be interesting, after all when you have MI6's super spy hiding his true identity and 20 CHERUBS doing the same, how could it not? Throw in K Unit and, well, who knows what will happen?
1. Prologue

_Before any readers of my CHERUB/Charmed/Harry Potter fics who happen to be reading this kill me can I please state that 3 of my stories are close to completion so..._

_k...so I've read a LOT of Alex goes to SAS camp with his school...wanted to write one without completely copying someone else's so...*author quickly runs and checks*...yep no one has done this...yet...should be interesting..._

_Basically take said Alex has to go to the SAS training ground with his friends fic and add in 20 CHERUBS! ____ random idea but I was rather desperate to come up with some way of making this different...lemme know what you think????_

_DISCLAIMER: N.O.T. M.I.N.E....(wow first time I remembered it!)_

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Alex Rider, 14 year old spy for MI6, was currently sat on a school bus full of excited Year 10s groaning and occasionally hitting his head against the window. Damn MI6 and their bright ideas to hell, no way was this going to be a 'fun bonding experience and a chance for you to mend bonds of friendship with your school mates' as Blunt had stated, this was more going to be a 'month from hell with a bunch of sadistic SAS men and a bunch of immature Year 10s for company'. _Well, _Alex thought, _at least K Unit aren't going to be there, gotta count your blessings somewhere right?_

...............................

20 navy and black shirted CHERUBs stood in Reception talking loudly amongst themselves wondering why the hell they had been summoned here at 2am and told to bring enough toiletries and essentials for a month, any thoughts that it was going to be a holiday were quickly dispelled as the CHERUBs noticed Mr Large turning the corner.

"Right then kiddies, as you have all been slacking off lately," He ignored the protests refuting his statement, "it has been decided that you lot, our apparent best agents, are to be sent to an SAS training camp in Wales. MI6 has given you a cover apparently there are a bunch of," Large sniffed and wrinkled the nose as he said the word, "school kids there as well, you will be among the youngest but you are to blend and learn. NOW GET GONE!"

The shout and the glare coupled with it booted the CHERUBs into action and they all made a mad rush for the door and ran whooping to the bus.

_Poor innocent kiddies...I'm an angel compared to some of those gits..._

.................................

_Rather ridiculously short but does anyone like the idea and want me to continue??? I probably will regardless but it would be nice to know someone else was reading this besides me!_

_Ldf x_


	2. Welcome to Hell

_Hi...really been overwhelmed with the response for this fic *smiles* and I promise you now this chapter WILL be longer...I just really didn't know what to write in the first one and all the other ideas just seemed like dragging it out too much..._

_Anyways..._

* * *

20 CHERUBs piled out of the bus, falling over each other in their haste to get out. They'd been instructed to make sure their CHERUB shirts remained hidden about half way over but they were still to wear them and stick to the ranks as if if it was any normal training exercise. This of course had led to a very happy James who was the only black shirt who'd been selected, Lauren being a girl and the other boys on missions or scheduled for them in the imminent future. Many of the others groaned, those that knew James anyway, there was no way James wasn't gonna pull rank at least once on this training exercise, those that didn't know him didn't seem to care...until the message got passed round that James would be pulling rank on them at least once. By the time they'd gotten to the camp James had received numerous death threats from the 19 other CHERUBs who all threatened to kill him very painfully if he even thought about it; James being James of course made no promises.

The Brookland school kids watched them with interest, well all except Alex who was currently trying to hide his face in a rather futile attempt to stop any of the soldiers currently in the camp recognising him. However looking at the 4 soldiers who were currently watching the group, all of whom looked extremely annoyed, whoever was in charge of Alex's life was obviously very bored currently and had decided to screw with him as much as possible, even if that included bringing in the exact same unit MI6 had forced him to train with the last time they sent him to this Godforsaken camp. The Fates must really have had something against him when they thought this up.

"Attention!" The sergeant snapped causing Alex and the CHERUBs to snap to attention all of them used to the military style commands, Alex from history with the SAS and the CHERUBs from Mr Large's love of making the kiddies under him suffer; unfortunately the rest of the Brookland crowd failed to even notice said command and carried on shouting and, in simple terms, making the 4 soldiers put in charge of their lives for the next month extremely pissed off and rather determined to make said kiddies lives hell while they were here...not that that hadn't been the plan all along, now it was just more, confirmed.

"Oy! Adolescent brats! Attention! Now!" The command this time was more of a shout which finally got the other 14 and 15 year olds' attention. Of course none of them were too quick about it; or cared about that fact at all.

"Right then, now I finally have your attention. I do not want you here. None of my soldiers want you here. The unit I've assigned you to doesn't want you here. _You are not wanted. _Is that clear? Unfortunately as you are here I have had no choice but to prepare you a schedule and have one of my units babysitting you. You are to be grouped, in half an hour you will have a fitness assessment. I do not want to see any of you slacking. You will not be put with your friends, you will not be put with people outside of your, rather pathetic, ability range and you will certainly not be with any siblings. You will be staying in the huts our soldiers use. You can and will be binned if you mess up, you will be treated like any other soldier on this base. There will be no special treatment because of your age. Any of you who step out of line will deal with the consequences, no exceptions. We have no names here, from now on all of you are Kid, this man behind me is Wolf, and with him are Snake, Eagle and Fox. They are your superiors at all times on this camp. You are below even the newest recruits. You answer to everyone. You call everyone sir. K Unit, they're all yours."

"Right then kiddies. As you gathered, we do not want you. Your huts are over there, they are temporary huts but you will not complain. Mess hall and wash room are to your left. Breakfast is at 0600 hours. Miss it and you don't eat till lunch. Quite simple. Now you have 15 minutes, I want you unpacked and changed for an inspection." The group stood still. "Well go!" Wolf roared.

Alex and the CHERUBs sprinted off, the rest of them following at a more leisurely pace until hearing Wolf bark at them again. That got them moving. Apparently the threat of extra exercise worked well.

* * *

"Bloody hell, these guys are worse than Large! And I thought that was impossible!" Jack, a 15 year old navy shirt, whined, well he didn't whine obviously, he was a boy...but it was pretty close. "I'd rather be back on campus with him! Wait no scratch that, I'd rather be here, they're doing an abridged version of basic back at campus once you've been an agent for 5 years. Stupid idea but there you go."

The 20 boys were currently changing into the ill-fitting clothes the SAS had given them, many of them wishing they'd brought their own, or at least more pairs of their own for those that had worn theirs down anyway. None of them were overly impressed with the accommodation but then, basic was of a pretty similar standard, so if nothing else at least they were, in a twisted way, used to the overall lack of luxury. Of course it was more than a step down from their rooms on campus, but then what did you really expect from the SAS? The conversation about whether or not it was a good idea carried on amiably for about 5 minutes until James, who had just looked out of the open door spoke up over the chatter:

"No more CHERUB talk, the other lot are here." He snapped, "And yes it is a stupid idea, but that lot are here so now the campus talk is over."

"Quit pulling rank James, we're not anywhere where it counts anyway!" Jack retorted, the 16 year old not impressed at James' attempt to pull rank less than 10 minutes into their time off campus, not that he'd expected anything less but it was still rather annoying to say the least.

"I said no more campus talk! Do you want them to start asking questions?" James replied waving a hand towards the 10 approaching Brookland kids who had no idea who they were about to be bunking with.

Jack just stuck his tongue out and started talking to his friends. Leaning back on his bed James rolled onto his stomach and attempted to get to know the 10 boys from Brookland bunking in with the 20 CHERUBs in the small amount of peace they had before the fitness assessment SAS style. What fun.

* * *

"Right then kidlets. Given that you all managed to make it on time I can't punish you _yet. _But believe me, you mess up once and you will regret it." Wolf turned to look at the three men behind him, and nodded. Eagle moved to stand next to Wolf with a grin Alex knew all too well. Whatever was coming next was guaranteed to be vicious, cruel, and just plain exhausting.

"Hello kiddies! Welcome to the SAS fitness test. You are going to be split into 3 initial groups. Brookland into two and the other lot by themselves. 20 to a group. Move!"

The 60 kids immediately split themselves off, Alex somehow managing to work his way into Tom's group – not that that pleased anyone else in the group, yet another thing to thank MI6 for, Alex thought bitterly. Seeing that the kids had somehow managed the task Eagle started talking again.

"Brookland 1, go with Fox. You're about to meet our assault course. Brookland 2, you're with Snake. It's endurance time. And finally Henderson's Academy, you're with me and we're going to have some fun." Eagle smiled. "Now get moving!"

The two Brookland groups moved off with their respective soldiers while the CHERUB lot stayed put waiting for instruction from Eagle, who, it seemed to many, was Large all over again.

"So my dear delightful "for official purposes you do not exist" kiddies, let's see how good you really are. I've been told you're the best of the best. Now we're gonna put that theory to the test. If you aren't up to it you're gonna be with the Brookland kids. No exceptions. Likewise if they're better than you they will be joining you with whatever training we see fit. You will deal with it and I don't care what you think. Now, get your asses moving, you're fighting the recruits."

The CHERUBs stifled groans and started running, picking up the pace after a shout from Eagle, and Wolf who seemed to have decided to see what the little mini agents could do.

* * *

Alex groaned as he looked at pure hell. The assault course. He'd managed it in 17 minutes the last time he was here but he doubted if he'd beat it – quite simply because of the ridiculous cover he was going to have to maintain throughout his time at the camp. The course seemed to have grown longer since he'd been here, or it could just be the annoying 14 and 15 year olds stood behind him who still seemed to think that this was a game and that the assault course was merely an overgrown adventure playground. At least he had Fox, the one guy in this entire camp who could maybe, possibly, might treat him like a human being. Of course that could just be wishful thinking going from the expression currently on the man's face at the thought of having to drag 20 kids across the mud and slime filled assault course.

Giving the man a discreet wink Alex nudged Tom and the two stood to attention and waited for the fireworks to begin. He might be the calmest out of the SAS lot they were gonna have to deal with, but Fox really got annoyed when people didn't stick to the rules, regardless of which people and which rules they were.

"Oy! I don't know who the hell you brats think you are but this is not acceptable! I have been waiting for you for 10 minutes! You are supposed to be on this assault course already, the SAS is a tightly run ship and _no one _slacks off for even a second. We're stuck babysitting you guys but that does not mean that you can do as you please! Now get yourselves on that assault course and I want it done in under 25 minutes. You are not leaving until you do now get going!"

As the others started running Fox pulled Alex aside. "Cub, you've got 15 minutes to make it across and you aren't leaving till you've done it so – get going!"

"Yes sir!" Alex said before sprinting off, the only way he was going to manage it two minutes faster was if he ran it _before _he was exhausted from going over it a few times, and trying to hide his speed and familiarity with the damn thing from his, in a loose sense of the word, friends. Of course all of that was pointless if he didn't manage it the first time, so he might as well try his damned hardest to get it done the first time round, besides any time he could get _not _having to work was a rare blessing here.

* * *

_**Just to clarify before you guys review – the SAS know exactly who the CHERUBs are, they also know that Alex/Cub is there...it's only the 3 groups that don't know what each other are – the school kids, CHERUBs and Alex, the SAS know the kids don't (: **_

_I know not a lot happened...but I seem to have developed an obsession with writing chapters with not much in them yet they work all the same so...*shrugs*...anyways PLEASE REVIEW! I would ahve made it slightly longer but I'm off on camp tomorrow and I have homework :( so if I didn't post it now it would be next Tuesday before I had a chance..._

_Ldf x_


	3. Assault course fun

_Hey guys!!! New chapter for you...will hopefully be as long as the last one but it depends really on how much I want to happen...and how much time I get to write (:_

_And just cos it got pointed out (thanks btw) I'm gonna tell you all this one teeny tiny important fact most of you won't even have noticed I've shifted the timeline in this a bit so that Fox is still SAS...originally I was gonna have him MI6 (hence the name problem which I've now fixed)...but he is SAS just for the fun of it._

* * *

Alex looked at Fox who gave the boy the faintest of smiles.

"14 minutes and 59 seconds, you cut it close there Cub."

Alex turned his head slightly so he could see the end of the assault course from his position on the, currently very soft feeling, floor that he felt like going to sleep on and didn't bother replying. He wasn't overly bothered _how _far under the 15 he'd been more that he'd actually managed to _get_ under it, besides the shorter his time now the shorter time limit he'd have next time, something surprisingly enough Alex was keen to avoid. Contrary to popular belief he did not have a death wish, or any desire to have to run that assault course again. Shame that Fox didn't seem to care about that particular fact wasn't it?

"Right then Cub, sprint back to the start and run it again. I wanna see it done in less than that."

Alex groaned and forced himself off the ground, coercing his aching muscles into action and started running, half turning and giving Fox the finger when he got told to pick up the pace. He wasn't the one who was going to have to come up with some reason why people he'd already overtaken the first time round were being passed by him _again._ And only 10 minutes later. Should be fun, heck, maybe he should tell them all that he's a teenage spy for MI6 while he was at it, it was currently better than any other explanation he could come up with. He'd already had some funny looks about his speed the first time.

Ignoring his muscles' protests Alex started pulling himself up over the first hurdle. He was by no means going slow, just not as fast as last time...well until he got up and running. Then of course when he spotted his school mates he'd have to slow down – in simple terms there was no way he'd mange it in less than 15 minutes this time, or if you wanted to get picky 14 minutes and 59 seconds. Halfway through the dreaded thing Alex caught up with the, 'slow', members of the group.

"Alex?" Reece forced out between gasps. "Haven't you done this already?"

Alex put on an annoyed expression, not hard to do considering he _was _annoyed.

"SAS bastard reckons I cheated, he's making me rerun it." Well it was only a half lie; said SAS bastard _was _making him rerun it, just not because of cheating.

"Harsh."

Alex nodded then sprinted over to the next obstacle, an absolutely delightful mud crawl. Not that the mud was anything major given the state of his kit already, but adding the fresh mud on top of it was not exactly pleasant to say the least. And to top it all it started raining, not an unusual occurrence at Brecon Beacons but not a very pleasant or welcome one either. Personally Alex was under the impression that whoever decided to build the camp here chose it specifically for that reason alone.

5 minutes later Alex glanced down at the remainder of the course from his vantage point at the top of the wall and saw Fox smirking and tapping his watch. Alex contemplated giving him the finger again but figured the distance meant it would be lost on the man, ignoring that fact Alex did so. The man returned the gesture then held up 4 fingers causing Alex to swear and start moving. Fox was hardly the worst out of the bunch but he'd be in for it if he failed to get himself there within the ludicrously small time limit he had left.

Dropping to the ground gasping for breath Alex shot a glare at Fox who nodded; apparently impressed. Alex just rolled onto his back and tried to catch his breath. Tom looked over sympathetically having gathered that Alex had been made to run the thing twice in the same time limit they had to do it once having been filled in on the fact that these were the same guys that had trained him last time.

"Rider! Get off your ass now! Or else I'm making you run it again." Fox snapped.

Alex jumped up reflexively snapping to attention, cursing inwardly at his actions. Honestly Rider! You're a spy, and you can't even keep your cover in front of this lot! Alex carried on berating himself as Fox smirked softly at the teen's expense. Noticing Alex scowled but didn't dare give the man the finger in front of the rest of the kids, too many awkward questions. At least his exhaustion could be explained by the illnesses MI6 dreamed up for his absences, he could be still recovering – whether anyone would believe him was a different matter. He'd proved he was still in top form at school the week before playing football against a school Alex couldn't remember the name of for the life of him. For at least the 5th time since he'd been told about this delightful visit Alex damned everyone who worked for MI6 to an eternity in fiery hell.

"Right then kidlets, I do believe it is time for you to meet my dear friend Snake for some fun endurance tests. And I don't want any complaints from any of you. You are running there. You have no choice in this matter. I will be following so I _will _know if you stop. Get moving."

Fox grinned and the 20 exhausted teens started moving. Alex hung back slightly and quietly asked Fox what his time had been.

"14 minutes 26 seconds." The man replied. "Better than Wolf on a bad day."

"And your time?"

"13 minutes, give or take a few seconds. Wolf's still the fastest out of all of us but Snake's pretty close to catching him – 12 minutes 8 seconds, Wolf got his down to 11 minutes 55 seconds."

Alex grinned. "Then I've got 11 minutes 55 to beat before I leave."

Fox stopped in shock and Alex sprinted off taking advantage of the man's momentary pause. Looking at the teen's retreating back Fox snapped back into action and started running, chivvying some of the slower kids along, and shouting at the others to get a move on. Alex smirked and deliberately slowed down.

"Rider!" The man hollered. "Get your lazy ass moving before I come and kick it into gear!"

Still smirking Alex sped up slightly, enough that Fox couldn't scream at him but not enough that he'd tire himself out. Endurance tests were never fun and Snake seemed to take a sadistic pleasure in wiping everybody out, and then making them work some more. Alex swore that it was an entry requirement for the SAS, and so far not one soldier in this camp had managed to change his mind, either time he'd been here.

* * *

"Right then kiddies. I've been told you're all incredibly fit little superspies. I've also been told by your delightful Mr Large, that you guys can do pretty much anything with lead on your backs. So guess what? You guys are getting backpacks with 15 kilos of lead in them and then you're off on a 10 mile run. But just to get you warmed up I want 50 press ups with those lovely packs on your backs. So, get going!"

Recognising an order when they heard one the CHERUBs grabbed a pack each and started on their press ups. All of the lads there could easily manage 50, but cold as they were and with an extra 15 kilos on their backs the slightly weedier of the group struggled towards the end whereas the stockier kids like James managed them a lot easier. Seeing James done Eagle smiled and walked over to him.

"Was that 50 Adams?"

"Yes sir." James practically screamed.

"See here's the funny thing, I don't think it was. So you wanna know what I think Adams?"

"What sir?" James said knowing perfectly well what was coming.

"I think that you need to do another 50 for me. And I'm going to count them personally this time."

Knowing from experience with Large James bit back his retort and started on his next 50, however once he hit 45 Eagle, who seemed to have taken a leaf out of Miss Speaks' book*, put a heavy boot on James' back and pushed down. Hard. Grunting James stubbornly carried on, pushing against the man's weight forcing the muscles in his arms to work overtime until he managed number 46. Eagle it appeared wasn't happy that James hadn't given in so kept his foot on the teen's back as James struggled to complete his last 3 press ups. Unfortunately for the pair both of them were incredibly stubborn bastards and neither of them were giving in.

5 minutes later James had finally managed to get in his final three press ups and was gasping for breath. Despite being impressed, by the kid's determination if nothing else, Eagle refused to show it in front of the kids; after all they might think he actually liked them (!), so just sent them on their run instead. After he was certain the kids were out of earshot Eagle turned to Wolf and spoke.

"Well, at least one of these supposedly fantastic kiddies is halfway decent."

Wolf merely raised an eyebrow at the man and jogged after the twenty teens. Thinking up ways to prove that these 'superspies' weren't all that they were cracked up to be Eagle followed suit, albeit a bit slower due to the intense thinking giving his brain a much harder work out than normal – not that that was an overly hard thing to do.

A bit further ahead the CHERUBs were muttering among themselves about the "evil bastard who needs to get laid". James only half listened to all the comments as he ran, he was more interested in trying to keep upright after the hell his muscles had gone through after Eagle's 'fun'. Looking to the side he saw one of the Brookland groups going over the assault course. At first glance it looked no worse than the one back on campus but after a closer inspection it proved to be a fair bit longer if not all aerial based like the one the CHERUBs were used to. Gathering from his experience so far James tried to take in as much of the course as possible and work out ways to make it easier, and theoretically faster.

Noticing some of the other CHERUBs looking at him he indicated the course and told them what he was doing. Seeing the sense many of them copied the idea whilst trying to keep up their pace. Hearing the crunching of boots behind them they quickly tore their eyes from the oversized adventure playground and sped up trying to keep as much distance between themselves and the two SAS soldiers as possible. If they were like Large, which so far that seemed to be the case, if they caught up then there'd be hell to pay. Hell normally comprising of countless sit ups, press ups, squats and, if there was anywhere to do them, pull ups. Of course this would be SAS hell so was undoubtedly going to be 10 times worse.

Seriously wishing for his own broken in boots James pounded over the only bit of hard ground he'd come across on the track feeling the blisters forming and knowing he was going to be in agony the entire time they were here knowing that there was no way he'd manage to get hold of some better boots while they healed. Thinking about it he probably could nab some off someone else but there was no guarantee they'd be any better and at least these would only stink of his own feet.

However long it was until they finished their run, none of them had watches on, the CHERUBs were all very much looking forward to a 10 minute break. Unfortunately for the CHERUBs they were currently at an SAS camp where the idea of free time was a foreign concept. As Wolf and Eagle arrived the 20 teens stopped their quiet muttering and stood waiting for instruction.

"Right then my dear angels. I think it's time you lot had some fun on our assault course. And don't bother getting rid of the packs – they stay with you."

Some of the CHERUBs who'd removed their packs consequently bent down and forced them back on straining already sore shoulders.

"Right then." Wolf said. "Follow me, and anyone who stops running will be running the assault course until they puke. Clear?"

"Yes sir!" The 20 CHERUBs shouted, scrambling to follow Wolf as quickly as possible before punishment began.

* * *

_*I finally got hold of a copy of DARK SUN (amazing things charity shops are!!!) and this bit just screamed at me to be put in here so it did...:) lol_

_Anyways, hope you liked and it IS as long as chapter two I am so pleased with myself! And that I've managed to stick to my updating schedule for once!!! I normally don't...although to get this written I have ignored my CHERUB fic which only needs one more chapter...I'll do it tomorrow..._

_I was gonna put in the other group's endurance test but I decided that given that I'm going over Alex doing it anyway there's no point. I don't have a character in that group to focus on anyway._

_Ldf x_


	4. Assault course: Revisited

_Don't know whether I'll have this out by Thursday, I'm away at the minute and travelling a lot so I don't get that much chance + my brother forgot his charger so I can't use his ipaq like I did for my CHERUB fic...anyways I'll do my best! (Will probably be Friday though)_

* * *

James woke up to screams from the other hut, along with a few profanities. None of the CHERUBs had bothered getting changed that night, some aspects of basic training stuck with you it seemed, so all 20 of them, plus Alex who none of the CHERUBs seemed to have noticed, were up and making their beds by the time Eagle burst in. Eagle's face fell at the sight, well until he realised that the other half were still asleep and making no move to get out of bed. So he only got to torture three-quarters of the kiddies that morning, unfortunately for said kiddies that wasn't good enough for Eagle given that they were babysitting _again_. He wanted his fun if he was going to get landed with kids for half his career. So rather than accepting the fact that he couldn't wake them all up in some torturous method he decided to punish them for being up. Enter the fire hose á la Mr Large.

Dripping wet the 21 unfortunate kids who were unfortunate enough to be up and ready and subsequently caught in the fire hose, stood outside next to the 39 annoyingly dry kiddies. 2 minutes later there wasn't a dry kiddie around. Eagle looked satisfied and handed the reigns over to Wolf, Fox and Snake were too busy trying not to laugh at a sopping wet Cub who was staring at them, eyes promising revenge. Apparently Eagle had found the opportunity too good to miss, it wasn't everyday it was possible to drench Cub with extremely cold water at 6am.

"Right then kiddies. Your groups. You'll be in groups of 21, 19 and 20. There are going to be no arguments about these placements. You will deal with your group. The 21, Henderson's and Rider..."

Alex tuned out the rest of Wolf's spiel and studied the kids he was gonna have to put up with, they weren't a bad looking bunch – one of them looked a bit cocky and Alex noticed the shirts underneath their regulation clothing, that varied between grey, navy and black. Well only the cocky kid had black and the rest of them were in the grey and navy. He had no clue what the colours meant, and with being at SAS camp probably no chance to find out. They were all looking at him too, obviously interested in why he was with them, Alex was more wondering how they were good enough to keep up with him.

The 4 soldiers at the front were watching, almost amused by the sight, and placing discreet bets on how long it would take until one group or the other would work out about the others. Most of their money was on Alex working it out first but Eagle seemed to have some faith in the pint sized spies MI5 had sent. Unsurprisingly no one had put money on Alex's school mates, none of the soldiers particularly wanted to lose their hard earned cash and betting on them pretty much meant they might as well hand their cash over now.

The two slightly smaller groups were running off with Fox and Snake by the time Alex decided to start paying attention to Wolf's ranting. Catching the tail end of an order he followed the other lot to the side of a shed. Seeing what was there he almost groaned, what was with SAS and heavy backpacks? Shrugging one on he noted that none of the other's were struggling either, well, he thought, they might manage but let's see how they do in an hour's time when they're exhausted.

They were jogging towards the assault course when Alex caught the first barely audible comment from the Henderson's Academy boys.

"And I thought that no one was worse than Large!"

The cocky looking kid in the black shirt told the poor kid to shut up and jerked a thumb in Alex's direction. The kid looked ashamed and sped off. Alex couldn't see what the big deal was, so they had a harsh PE teacher, so what? The kid had followed the black shirted kid's order without question though, maybe some prefect like system? The secrecy was something else though, why shouldn't he know about this hellish PE teacher? Alex was interrupted before he could think on the matter any further as the overgrown adventure playground from hell loomed up above them. He heard a barked 15 minutes and then he was off, albeit slightly slower than normal due to the weights on his back.

* * *

Tom had watched Alex disappear with a sense of trepidation, Alex had told him about his previous stay here and the fact that there were 20 other kids with him was little comfort, if K Unit wanted their revenge on anything Alex had done previously they weren't going to hesitate regardless of the audience. He surveyed his own group with a feeling less than happiness, he was hardly the most popular kid in school and being stuck in a hell hole with 18 other teens that didn't really care a jot about him...well it was going to be less than pleasant.

He watched as Fox paced in front of them, apparently wondering what to make them do. Tom's best guess was some form of paintballing exercise given the surrounding trees multicoloured scars. Paintball wasn't so bad, he didn't get hurt playing paintball...much.

Fox's pacing was starting to bug some of the kids, unfortunately he wasn't going to be stopping anytime soon, his pacing acted as a cover for his surveying of the group of 19 kidlets he was gonna have to babysit. One of them was looking at him in an almost Cub like manner, a friend maybe? Was Cub even allowed to tell people that he was with Special Ops? Somehow Fox doubted it, MI6 were right secretive bastards when it came down to it. Of course Cub wasn't exactly known for sticking to the rules...noticing the kids starting to look at him he stopped and started issuing orders.

"Any of you with half a brain cell will have figured out that, someone, somewhere decided that you have get to have the fun of playing paintball. They didn't however specify what rules I had to use, so. Every man for himself, if you get shot anywhere but your hands or feet you are dead. Shots to your hands and feet mean you can no longer use that body part. Stick within the fenced area, if you get lost I don't care. If you are dead you lay on the ground until I tell you to. Is that clear?"

A few mumbled 'Yes sir's were heard but half of the group remained silent.

"Is that clear?" Fox roared.

"Yes sir!"

Fox grunted, not in sync and they all followed the lead of Cub Jr but it was a start. They wouldn't be getting away with it next time anyway, Wolf was taking them for a run tomorrow. What was going to be a rather entertaining run if the attitude the kids had today was any indicator. The kids were all chattering excitedly obviously having never experienced the paintball rounds the SAS used. Not like the simulated rounds that needed about 6 layers of padding and even then it still hurt, but they were rather more painful than the standard ammo you got for birthday parties and things.

Once they were all set up Fox sent them into the woods with a barked command, then retreated to a nearby hut to watch the carnage on video. If they had to babysit they might as well get some enjoyment out of it. Of course if the kiddies were smart they'd realise he'd never told them they _had _to shoot; and they could just watch from the sidelines...but since when have kiddies ever been smart? Cub Jr was doing pretty well though; he'd hidden himself up a tree and was shooting anyone who was in range. The kid seemed to have earned his title, but whether he could live up to it with the rest of the unit, well that remained to be seen.

* * *

The entirety of the assault course was spent by most of the CHERUBs surveying Alex, and by Alex watching the CHERUBs actually manage to keep up with him. The two groups weren't overly concerned about racing through it but they did have a 15 minute time limit and they couldn't spend too long dawdling, no matter how much James just wanted to sit back and watch Alex go through and see just how good he actually was.

Alex and James pulled themselves over the last hurdle and readied themselves for the drop over the other side. Used to Campus' assault course James jumped down a fraction of a second sooner than the other spy and hit the ground running. Alex followed cursing as he saw Eagle's smirk – Cub had been beaten out by a pint sized superspy, on only his second go on the course. Cub was in for some ribbing when he was alone and Alex knew it, now all he had to do was not give them a chance to. Easier said than done.

Refusing to drop to the floor in exhaustion, Alex hadn't, James stood and watched the rest of the CHERUBs coming off the course, that entertained him for all of a minute by which time everyone was stood to attention in front of the two burly SAS soldiers. No one bothered to take off the packs, they'd be told to put them back on anyway.

"Right my dear kidlets, we're going to partake in a favourite past time of mine. There's a rather nice track round here I've used with someone we used to call Double 0 Nothing," Alex shot the man a rather nasty scowl at the mention of his old nickname, Wolf ignored him and carried on, "We gave him 12 hours, but I think you guys only need 10. So after Eagle and myself have dropped you off you have 10 hours to get to the end of the course. If you're late you will be doing it again, and on punishment duty for 3 days. Have fun."

The 21 kids were dropped off with their packs, given maps and then left. Alex started moving first remembering the rock face he'd have to climb at the end. The CHERUBs followed, one or two flat out running whilst the rest jogged. The kids had made good time and were just over half way through the course with 5 and a half hours left when James decided to talk to Alex.

"So, what's your school like? Ours is alright, they're really big on rules though."

Alex gave a non committal shrug, "Bout as bad as any other school, not been there much recently so don't really know." He answered wondering to himself why on Earth he was talking to this kid who he'd known for all of a day, and telling him details like that. He seemed alright, he wasn't all that cocky, just apparently in charge of his school mates while they were here. The pair were the first to arrive at the rock face, James giving Alex a leg up, something Alex was rather surprised at. But then all the kids behind them had split into pairs and a three, so it shouldn't really have been all that much of a surprise.

When they reached the top they were greeted by a grinning Eagle who told them to get down on the floor and start doing push ups until everyone else arrived. Both teens glared at the man before dropping to the floor and doing as requested. Eagle and Wolf had apparently had fun churning up the mud while they waited if the state of the ground was anything to go by. Neither teen was eager to drop into the mud even though they were already covered in it, instead they chose to keep quiet and concentrate not even looking up as the others arrived. Half an hour after James and Alex had arrived the last pair made it up the rock face and into the mud.

The two SAS soldiers grinned and worried looks passed around the group – what now?

* * *

_You like????_

_And out of interest how many CHERUB readers on here want to get their hands on the Brigands MC limited edition cover????? And see the film????_

_Moving on...I don't like this all that much but I've set up a few suspicions in Alex's mind anyway...James might get a few next chapter..._

_Ldf x_


	5. Midnight conversations

_Hi, can't believe how many reviews I've got for this fic already!!! *grins manically* anyways next chapter!!!_

_I would write the Italian actually in Italian but my Italian is rather shite...if I ever switch to French though that will actually be French and I'll put translations in my a/n at the bottom._

_Btw I'm not sure how long this fic is actually going to end up...I normally do around 10 chapters but I'm not certain exactly how long this will be just to let you know :D_

* * *

After a 15 minute discussion trying to find a language everyone could actually understand, they settled on Italian, the 10 CHERUBs who were still awake finally got their conversation started. James had forbidden them from speaking in English no matter when it was in case someone woke up, most of them thought he was paranoid but conceded to the point. None of them happy about it but they did see the sense in it, well some of them did.

"I overheard the Sergeant talking to Wolf, Zara rang apparently campus has been copying Lauren. Large is back in the infirmary, he's Wolf's cousin or something. He's supposed to be telling James that if she finds out Lauren had anything to do with it then she's out. Mac's punishment still stands."

"That's rough. Didn't James say he'd quit if Lauren got booted?"

"Mac made him promise to stay, don't know if Zara knows that bit though. But would it be all that great a loss if James left? He's a right cocky bastard and –"

Jack was interrupted by a brown haired 15 year old shoving him. Jack scowled and attempted to continue but Paul cut across him.

"He's not that bad – have you seen his track record? When you've survived in Russia with the entirety of the Secret Police after you you can talk. Anyway, he's pretty decent if you're his friend and _not _dating him." Paul smirked, "Adams is a ladies man alright, he's scored every time. Dana was none too impressed after last time."

Alex conveniently chose this moment to wake up, and rather than roll over and go back to sleep he decided to listen to the rather interesting Italian conversation the 10 teens at the other end of the hut were having. He was rather surprised that they were speaking Italian, and fluently, most schools went for French, German or Spanish. And being fluent by year 10 was pretty much unheard of, maybe they were an Italian school or something. Some rich Italian parents sending their kids to get educated in good old Blighty, God knows why but there you go.

Seemingly unawares the other teen was awake, or if they knew presuming he didn't understand Italian, the CHERUBs carried on. Moving on from the topic of James' rather questionable history and onto where they'd last been with CHERUB.

"America – that thing Large ran." Paul threw in, "It was pretty good until James got kicked off for destroying loads of stuff. Then it got boring cos they added loads more rules and we couldn't go shooting people for no reason."

"I was in China with Ewart - bastard."

The name caused most of the others to wince with sympathy and Tyler nodded. Ewart had been kinda harsh, he wasn't making friends with this snobby rich kid fast enough for his liking, then there was the random drug tests just in case he'd got involved with something at a party, he was suspicious of everybody since Nicole. He'd passed them all which just seemed to infuriate the man, almost like he wanted to get rid of him. How much of that theory was true was actually debatable, but it seemed like it all the same.

Jack had looked towards Alex, and unfortunately for the spy, noticed that he was awake. This obviously caused a flurry of movement in which the CHERUBs alerted each other of this fact in varying languages. 2 minutes later Alex found 9 pairs all staring at him (James being asleep), their gazes burning into him.

"You understand me?" One of them, a brown haired burly looking teen, asked. Alex nodded cursing himself for not paying proper attention to the others' actions, he was supposed to be a spy and he let a teen catch him out!

"No shit Sherlock." He muttered switching back to English gazing at the shocked faces of the teens in front of him. Apparently they hadn't met many other 15 year olds who could speak fluent Italian either. Well this was fun. Idly Alex wondered whether Wolf and Eagle spoke Italian, it could be fun to curse them in a language they didn't understand, speaking of Eagle he still needed revenge over the wake up call he'd received this morning. Maybe he could do something next time they were paintballing...

He was jerked out of his musings by a barked question, in English this time.

"From America." He muttered glancing over at them to see if that answer was deemed acceptable. The CHERUBs in question were more concerned with whether or not they'd mentioned anything to do with missions or campus. Nothing stuck out but then it wouldn't, the only times they had to be careful was missions and even then only if they were sharing an apartment with their target or a non-CHERUB operative. None of them were overly used to watching what they said anyway, most of the kids they made friends with weren't smart enough to pick up on anything anyway.

Apparently satisfied the CHERUBs turned away and split into smaller groups speaking in slightly more stilted conversations in languages Alex didn't recognise. Maybe Chinese? Regardless of the language Alex knew he wasn't going to be learning anything else about why the boys from Henderson's were so secretive tonight so he might as well get some sleep, cos God knows Eagle wouldn't go easy on them in the morning just because they were tired. Hell he's probably be harder on them just because he could.

10 minutes later the entire cabin was quiet as none of the CHERUBs were overly keen to chance the Alex kid overhearing anything again.

* * *

"Good morning kiddies!" Eagle yelled joyously smiling at the half asleep teens in front of him. Presumably they had all acted like stupid idiots and not gone to sleep till 4 in the morning, just in time for their 6am wake up call. Alex was glaring daggers at him – the man was too awake for so early in the morning!

"Right then my dear best of a bad bunch kiddies. Today – paintball. You will be working in 3 teams of 7, a capture the flag scenario. Eagle, and 2 soldiers from L Unit, Bear and Lynx, will be playing with you. Hit them and I'll let you off running the assault course, don't hit them and you're running it twice. A hit in the chest or legs and you're dead, arms or hands you just can't use that body part. You'll be using simulated rounds so you're wearing padding. This will last all day, you aren't getting a break for lunch. Split yourself off into your teams, I can't be bothered to sort you all into them, it's much more fun to watch you try and do it yourselves, fail and then I'll step in and sort you into groups completely opposite to how you were working on. Go!"

20 of the teens started moving, Alex decided to stand and watch then slip himself into the group of 6. He still didn't know these kids, although playing paintball v Eagle was starting to look like a very interesting form of revenge...

"Yo, Rider. Feel like joining us or are you gonna stand there like a lemon?" The new cocky kid, Jack apparently from the hissed disapproval, shouted. Unfortunately he was in the only group of 6, and unless Wolf decided to pity him, Alex snorted at the thought, he was gonna be stuck with him for a day, what fun. Alex scowled as he moved to join the group, breaking the scowl off for a second he sent a pleading look towards Wolf. Wolf shook his head in response. Alex's scowl reappeared as he moved behind the newly dubbed cocky kid.

"Perfect, now Rider switch with Adams, Rogers swap with Lakes and that'll do me. Now get moving, I want you kitted up in 10 minutes." Wolf snapped, Alex sent him a grateful look in response and then sprinted towards the equipment sheds determined to get some that actually fit him half decently this time. Last time he'd ended up in a suit that was barely long enough but sagged around him so much that it didn't really matter. If he was going to get his revenge he needed to actually be able to move with some degree of stealth and fluency.

Finding the best out of a bad bunch he pulled it on, not bothering to actually look around the shed any longer for fear of losing the only semi decent one he'd found. Noting the others' arrival he ducked out and started thinking tactics. Tree was too obvious however well it worked, and there was no guarantee he'd run into Eagle, besides this was a capture the flag scenario. Maybe have 3 searching, 3 defending and 1 roaming and taking out? But there were two flags to get hold of...maybe 4 on the searching then, 2 for each flag? This was of course counting on the Henderson's lot listening to him...something that was probably doubtful.

As Alex stood waiting for the rest of his team to appear he watched Eagle bouncing around like an excited puppy on sugar, a disturbing image at the best of times, after little sleep and the fact that he was back at Brecon Beacons? It was less than pleasant to say the least.

"So I'm thinking we have two on our flag, 2 searching for each of the others and one of us can roam around taking people out, that cool with all of you?"

Alex nodded, apparently the kid had brains.

"Who's roaming?" He asked, "I'll do it, I mean you guys all know each other and you can talk together – I'm like a fish out of water with you lot."

The other 6 teens nodded eagerly, it would be easier, plus they could use CHERUB tactics properly. Besides none of them were overly keen to make friends with a kid they'd only know for twenty seven more days. Unless he was an orphan, unlikely, then he wouldn't even have a chance at being able to come back with them, anyway he was 15 and trying to persuade Zara to take him on just wouldn't be worth it – they' only get about two years out of him after he'd finished basic, if he passed first time.

"Perfect." Alex muttered. "Time for revenge."

* * *

_Slightly shorter than normal I know but for me it's already Friday and I'd be writing this till a ludicrous time trying to come up with something else to put in. The next chapter will be solely on the paintball fight though – I'm really looking forward to that...then the week after I won't be updating cos I'm in Egypt but I'll try write something on the plane so I can post two chapters _

_Ldf x_


	6. Paintball

_God knows why I'm trying to get this written in the whole two hours I have left before I'm fully booked but there you go, I will do my best. I've managed to finish one update so we can hope._

_Down to business...the paintball fight!_

_And to those of you who I said this would have been out on Tuesday I apologise, I didn't manage to get the whole thing written while I was away (only about half and I'm trying to make my chapters a bit longer) and I've been typing up updates for quite a few fics so sorry, but it is here even if it's a day or two late._

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Watching the six other teens walk off Alex started moving in the direction Eagle had headed, more bothered about revenge than the stupid capture the flag game they were supposed to be doing. Of course accidentally shooting some of the non participating SAS observers wouldn't be much of a problem either, but Eagle was a priority, after that, it was a free for all. It'd be worth getting punishment duty for anyway, provided they caught him. Mind you, he was probably the only one with the balls to do it so they'd punish him whether they actually saw him do it or not. Alex shrugged off the thought of the rather nasty punishment they'd dream up and concentrated on getting revenge, for both times he'd been at the camp – who knew whether he'd ever get another chance?

Alex caught up with Eagle quicker than he'd expected and had to hurriedly duck out of view before the man turned round and spotted him. That would ruin the surprise now wouldn't it? An evil grin on his face Alex crept through the trees until he was in front of the SAS soldier with his gun ready for a very painful hit. Eagle turned the corner whistling, Alex had to suppress a laugh at the man's completely tuneless rendition of something that had been mangled beyond recognition. Once the man was within point blank range Alex moved out from the cover of the trees and shot the surprised man in the most painful place possible, then proceeded to pump 3 rounds into the man, before taking off through the trees, ducking and weaving to avoid the shots that were being sent his way even though Eagle should really be dead and therefore not shooting at all. He heard the man swearing at him in Spanish and couldn't resist shouting back rather cockily that Eagle "should get down on the floor and enjoy the downtime because as soon as he got back he was never going to be allowed to forget this", Eagle's response was a snarl as he had no doubt Alex's prediction would come true. He'd be a laughing stock on base for weeks.

Laughing softly Alex started walking around the perimeter looking for any unsuspecting SAS men close enough to hit. Figuring Eagle had a radio and would have warned Bear and Lynx that he was out to kill them all he kept a sharp eye out for any sign of the men. If they'd seen the state he'd left Eagle in they'd be out for his blood and he'd be black and blue by the time they'd finished with him. Not something he really wanted when he had 10 days left at the hell hole and Eagle was going to be extra harsh on him as it was. Idly he wondered how much Bear and Lynx actually knew about him, he couldn't remember them from his previous visit and figured they probably though he was just another kid, he hadn't been called Cub in front of them either but he wasn't sure how much he'd been talked about in the gap between his original training and this delightful visit with his school. Of course Eagle could just tell them if they asked, they'd probably be harsher on him then, after all he was technically a member of K Unit and he'd hardly been nice to Eagle what with the amount of paint currently covering the man's body and the foetal position he'd left him in.

Hearing a branch snap behind him he swore softly, hoping that the rather large sounding person was merely one of the bigger Henderson's lot. That hope was dashed however when the man spoke.

"So you're Cub, the SO kid who was here while we were on duty, heard some interesting stories about you. Heard a new one today, well saw it actually, your team mate's in quite a mess back there, we've been instructed to leave you in worse condition than you did him. Prepare for pain little boy."

Bear raised his gun but Alex was faster and shot the man's wrist, Bear winced and dropped the gun in favour of clutching his aching hand. Alex took the opportunity to shoot the man in the chest from point blank range and then stole his radio and gave Lynx a message.

"2 of you are down, come take me if you think you can, hope you're more of a challenge than the others, they were just too easy, Bear signed his own death certificate, you don't talk to your target before you shoot, if you're gonna gloat do it after, and Eagle was just asking for it with that fire hose stunt, it wasn't even any fun, loads of love, Cub, K Unit's unwilling 5th member and the guy about to kick your ass." he added a kiss sound at the end of it and let the older man's angry tirade wash over him smiling. Life was good, now if only MI6 would leave him alone...Alex snorted in disbelief at the thought, they never would, MI6 owned him, they owned his life, and they were never going to let him go. He'd realised that a long time ago, part of it was his own fault, he'd admit that, he did have a habit of bringing some of this stuff on him himself, but it was their blackmail that stopped him from refusing the missions they actually sent him on, not a sick desire to put himself in danger or get shot at.

He shook himself out of his thoughts and fired off a couple of shots at two soldiers on their way to somewhere, they were far enough away it shouldn't have hurt, much. Alex spent the next half hour doing nothing, Lynx hadn't shown his face, either scared or planning a tactical attack with the SAS members who were nearby, Alex hoped for the former but knew that the latter was more likely. Unfortunately that meant that being black and blue for the rest of his time here was starting to look like a highly probable future, and even if he didn't take Lynx he'd still have a very pissed Eagle and Bear to deal with. One of whom was scary enough without being out to get you, and was in charge of him for his time here at the, almost, permanently raining Brecon Beacons.

He took out a couple of members of one of the other teams and out of boredom decided to go looking for his teammates and get a rundown on the carnage, well if any carnage had taken place, if he ran into Lynx then all the better, so long as the man didn't kill him before Alex could get a couple of shots off, and then some extra ones for the hell of it. He might as well have some fun given that as soon as the fight ended he'd be on permanent punishment detail.

He bumped into someone he _thought _was a member of his team and asked how many had gone down, the teen looked at him in disgust and raised his gun, Alex dodged and fired off his own shot which just missed the other boy who had barely reacted in time. Hissing in annoyance he sent another 2 the boy's way, easily dodging the shots sent back at him, and vaulted into a tree. The teen looked up at him and smirked, unfortunately Alex had seen what he hadn't, Lynx coming into the clearing. The boy went down with a shot in the back and Lynx looked up at him, an animalistic grin on his face and an eyebrow raised in challenge. Alex grinned and jumped down from the tree, gun trained on Lynx the whole time, and his eyes attempting to bore holes through the older man's skull. The boy on the floor saw the faces of the other two and decided that the safest course of action was to run, and run fast. Those two were out for blood.

"Took you long enough, I even switched the tracker on the radio on for you, don't tell me you didn't think to check." The man's face gave Alex his answer and the 15 year old smirked and pointed his gun towards a rather sensitive area of Lynx's anatomy, "Oh dear, SAS training failing you Lynx? Forget to check all your options did you? Tut tut, what's this place coming to? Last time I was here I could barely get the drop on any of you, now you're dropping like flies,"

"I got word from Wolf while I was searching for you Cub,"

"Call me Rider, teenagers who have no idea who I am are roaming, we wouldn't want to compromise national security now would we?"

Lynx scowled and continued, "Don't interrupt; he says this is a one on one match, first to take 5 hits loses. He's clearing everybody else out; it's just you and me. You win and you don't get punished for this little stunt you pulled, I win and you're on punishment duty for the next 10 days, and you'll be running the assault course until you puke everyday at 6am. You got that?"

"I can only presume you've found each other by now so here's your rules, 1, you can't start shooting until I say so, 2, you have 2 minutes to get wherever you wish to be for the start of this death match, 3, the first to take 5 hits is the loser no debating, 4, my word is law if I think you've fouled then the other gets a penalty shot, 5, if there's no winner at the end of an undetermined time limit the one who's taken the least shot wins. Now that's over with your 2 minutes start now, and Cub you better pray you win, Eagle's up in the infirmary and Bear ain't doing much better. Pull another stunt like this and I don't give a damn about the rules, you're gonna find your sorry ass binned – of course that'll be after we've all had a shot at you. Have fun boys."

Alex could just picture Wolf mock saluting them as he spoke and gave a two fingered salute in the direction he presumed Wolf was, he'd be watching obviously, couldn't have any cheating now could they? Spoilt Alex's plan a little but he was flexible, adaptation was part of his nature. Realising he only had a minute left Alex sprinted to the far edge of the woods and started setting himself up, defended on 3 sides by natural barriers the teen sat in a tree hidden among the leaves gun trained in the only direction Lynx could come, and Lynx would be doing the coming, Alex wasn't searching for him, in this case defence seemed to be the best tactic. Unless of course they both decided on it, then it'd be a waiting game. But from what he'd seen of Lynx the guy wasn't much about defence, he preferred attack. Alex sincerely hoped his assessment was correct, otherwise he was in for a long, boring wait until one of them caved or Wolf told them to get moving. Which wouldn't be fun; given the man's mood he might just declare Lynx the winner by default and up Alex's punishment. It wouldn't really surprise him; he had gone a touch overboard when he was laying into Eagle.

Okay maybe more than a touch overboard, but still, all four of them had treated him like hell last time they were here, and again this time. Bear hadn't done anything though, that was just him wanting to kick a dog when it's down, there was no need to go after him or Lynx the way he had. He sighed, can't change the past you know? What's done is done, he'd sneak up to the infirmary tonight and apologise to Eagle, try and find Bear as well, fun though it might have been, it was hardly the best idea in the world.

He was dragged out of his thoughts by the sound of paint exploding above his head, shit, maybe he should have been watching; at least Lynx hadn't hit him yet, he might not even know he was up here, maybe he was just shooting in hopes of eliciting a response from Alex that would give him some clue of where he was.

"Rider, get down here and bloody fight me! I know you're up there!" Lynx sent another two shots into the tree, both missing Alex by mere millimetres. Alex sent 5 towards Lynx and then jumped down towards the perimeter fence and away from Lynx. He sent two more shots towards the SAS soldier and then sprinted away, not sure how many, if any, shots had hit the man. From Lynx's war Alex presumed at least one had hit its mark.

Alex carried on running ducking and weaving amongst the trees in case Lynx tried to shoot after him. 5 minutes later with no sign of Lynx Alex slowed, not wanting to completely tire himself out. His radio came to life and Alex swore hoping Lynx wasn't close enough to hear it. Nothing happened so he presumed the man wasn't near him.

"You hit Lynx twice Cub. You won't be getting any more free shots, this ends now."

Alex smirked and threw the radio to the ground, somehow he didn't think it was going to end that quick. He still had 5 lives, Lynx only 3. This game might take a while cos Alex wasn't going down without a fight, and from the sounds of it neither was Lynx. Well, he thought, let the games truly begin.

....................................................................

_Again I say sorry for it being a day late but it is slightly longer than normal._

_**PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHETHER YOU WANT LYNX OR ALEX TO WIN! I HAVE PLANS BOTH WAYS SO IT'S YOUR CHOICE! ALEX OR LYNX?**_

_Ldf x_


	7. Death match

_Not sure why I actually bothered asking who you guys wanted to win...the response was kinda unanimous! Anyways...on with the show..._

_**Quick question completely unrelated to fic – does anyone else have the limited edition cover for Brigands MC? (grins manically as stares at own copy of that no one else is allowed to touch!)**_

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59 teenagers were currently milling around Brecon Beacons with nothing to do. Not there were any soldiers around to see this, they were either training or helping Snake make a load of money. Most of the soldiers had decided to support their own, but a few who'd seen Alex in action last time he was there put a bit of money on the teen. By the time all the available soldiers had been in to see him Snake had a very satisfied smile on his face.

One very bored James Adams was running through the woods when he realised why no one was around to shout at them to do anything.

"Stop hiding Cub and face me like a man, your games are getting boring. We both know I'm gonna win, so why waste your time trying?" Lynx screamed, Cub was still unscathed but he'd taken 2 hits already.

"You really think you can win Lynx?" Cub's cocky voice cut through the trees. James gasped, was that Alex? "You weren't here last time were you? Do you have any idea what I can do? What I've done? I shot the Prime Minister! Do you really think you can beat a kid who can claim that? Get over yourself Lynx cos you going down!"

As if to signify the point 3 shots fired into the tree just above Lynx's head and James found himself ducking instinctively as the paint headed his way. The tree next to him unfortunately wasn't so lucky and ended up covered in green point. By the time James had decided to get back up the two had disappeared and James found himself cursing, what was with the Cub thing? And why had Alex shot the Prime Minister? That had been in the news, the shooter's face had been pixelated though, could have been him, or he could just be making stuff up. Either way what on earth was Alex doing in a SAS death match? And from the looks of it winning.

Alex was currently in a tree watching Lynx prowling around below him, by the looks of things the older man didn't realise he was here – he wasn't shouting anyway, and from what Alex understood of the man if he thought Alex could hear he'd shout something degrading, and try baiting him into dropping his defences. Alex was currently thankful that all he'd let slip about his missions was that he was the shooter in the whole Stormbreaker incident.

Lynx had moved off and having seen a supposedly discreet camera in the tree opposite him Alex decided to have a bit of fun. In the control room Wolf saw Alex's grinning face before the lens was coated in green paint. The man punched the wall in frustration and snarled, there was a reason the SAS didn't accept 15 year olds! Especially not cocky 15 year olds like Cub. If the camp was still standing in 10 days time it'd be a miracle, 20 teenage spies, 39 school kids and a cocky Cub – the place was going to end up destroyed.

Having to switch to a different camera so he could keep track of the brat's movements Wolf watched as Alex snuck up behind Lynx and fired two quick shots at the man's back. Rather annoyingly Cub seemed to have gotten very good at melting into the shadows, more annoyingly Wolf couldn't get hold of Alex's file, MI6 were refusing to release it. Going back to the matter at hand, that rather annoying fact was making it much harder for Wolf to help Lynx out then it should have been.

Alex smirked as Lynx whirled round in rage.

"1 life left mate, still reckon you're gonna win?" Alex stuck his tongue out in a gesture eerily similar to a five year old then turned on his heel and ran firing wildly over his shoulder as he went. He could get lucky and hit the man after all, then this hellish thing would be over and he could go back to pretending to be a school kid who just happened to be good at sport, and speak fluent Italian (he was still kicking himself over that incident), all that however was counting on him making it out of this death match alive. And somehow he thought Lynx might be very protective over his last chance to win – it was just a hunch mind you. One that would very probably turn out to be correct though, if he won this there'd be no punishment for the carnage from earlier, something Alex doubted very much Lynx would let happen.

Alex's assumption ended up right as Lynx started walking towards him shooting. 3 of the shots hit Alex's chest, but Lynx's other 4 missed hitting the trees around him. Alex cocked his gun and fired. He smirked.

"Game over."

Out of spite Lynx sent another two shots at Alex but the teen just sidestepped them and started jogging back to Wolf's little hut.

"Face it Lynx, you're just getting old." Alex called back over his shoulder laughing. "You couldn't even beat a 15 year old school boy!"

In his little hut Wolf was scowling, there was no way Cub should have been able to win, he was 15 for God's sakes! Admittedly he was some sort of superspy but still, Lynx had had SAS training and a hell of a lot more of it than Cub had. Nothing MI6 would have given him should have matched up to that. There was no way Alex should be that good at shooting, he wasn't even allowed a gun last time he was here. How on earth did he get so damn good?

"Pleased to see me?"

Wolf turned round to a grinning Cub who was tossing his gun from hand to hand with the air of someone who just _knows _they're good. As Wolf said – cocky bastard. Noticing Wolf's gaze Alex smirked and leant against the wall. Wolf scowled and was fighting the urge to punch the 15 year old.

"Guess not then. Presuming you know that I won right? Even after I blotted out one of your cameras there, wasn't exactly well disguised you realise. I've seen way better, heck I've _used _way better. Anyway Wolf-man, I gotta go. Wouldn't do for the kiddies to get suspicious now would it?"

Alex rolled off the wall, dropping his gun on the floor as he did so, and started running towards the hut. It definitely wouldn't do for the other lot to get suspicious. Not to mention the fact that he was supposed to be a spy and supposed to be able to keep his cover, not that MI6's bright idea of sending him to Brecon Beacons was any help with that matter. Mind you MI6 were never any help so that was nothing new.

He debated going over to apologise to Eagle but decided that he wasn't going to be very well loved over there and it was hardly safe – at least one of the other members of K Unit would be with him and they really weren't happy with him. Admittedly they had a reason but still, maybe he should wait until night, just to be safe. It wouldn't do for him to have the rest of K Unit beating him up all night for revenge, although MI6's reaction to that one could be rather entertaining...Alex sat down on his bunk and grabbed some of the homework he was supposed to be catching up on. Turns out that missing as much school as he had wasn't good for your grades, or your social life.

Throwing the undecipherable maths homework down Alex started pacing around the hut, he had been a rather large bastard today, which in a camp full of SAS soldiers wasn't exactly the best thing to do. The only advantage he did have was Malagosto, but no one outside of MI6 knew about that. There was a reason he refused to allow his file to be sent with him, even if it was protocol. Apparently MI6 had decided that they did owe him that much, well Alex assumed as much given that Wolf hadn't said anything about his rather colourful file.

He flopped back down onto his, extremely hard SAS issue, bed and groaned. He was definitely going to kill Blunt when this was over. What had the man been on when he organised all of this? More to the point who had come up with this ridiculous thing? From the way the SAS had reacted when only he'd been here it definitely wasn't their idea, nor would they have been jumping for joy at having 60 teenagers with them for 2 weeks. The only people who were stupid enough were MI6, after all they were the ones who had the bright idea of sending him here the first time. Unless there was a whole secret division of mini spies, but then there'd be no need for him so that was rather impossible wasn't it? Or if there was one and they were still using him then Blunt _and _Jones were gonna die, painfully.

Seconds later the originally quiet hut was filled with noisy teenagers all commenting on the free time they'd just had. You would of thought the SAS would have kept them busy doing that death match they'd just had Alex and Lynx doing but apparently not. The James kid was looking at him weirdly, as if he knew something. Alex swore rapidly in Japanese, he had been rather mouthy in the words, anyone could have heard anything. Not the smartest of moves to make. Then he realised he'd been speaking Japanese, in front of kids who were probably smart enough to realise that what he was muttering wasn't English.

"You got any idea why we all suddenly had nothing to do earlier?" James asked Alex who was still muttering to himself in some language James couldn't understand – maybe Chinese?

"Wha? Oh, nah. They probably got bored with babysitting duty." He smirked slightly, well they probably were bored with it but it was probably more to do with the fact that there'd been a fight. A fight that a 15 year old had won, the guys were going to just love that one.

"Yeah, I think something was going on in the woods or something, I heard shouting when I was walking back over here. You reckon someone was getting some action in there or something?"

Alex laughed, SAS men getting any action? That was laughable, mind you so was what he'd just done so why not? He'd always thought Wolf and Snake would be good together...maybe Fox and Eagle too...

He jumped off the bed and walked towards the door, he really needed to go see Eagle. And right now was as good a time as any, even with the K Unit guard he was going to have. Maybe he should just go run the assault course instead. Hell if that was preferable then going to apologise to Eagle must be bad. The assault course was starting to sound like a very good idea. Alex quickly turned round and started jogging towards hell, also known as the SAS assault course.

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_For anyone that's interested I'm thinking about starting a new Alex Rider fic, It's going to be similarish – It'll have the paintball in it at any rate, I had an idea for this chapter but it didn't work with the grand scheme of things. Unfortunately I wanna write that as well so...it might take a while though, I have 3 fics I'm currently working on so...but yeah, I also know that there will be quite a lot of fics similar to that one but I really wanna right one so I don't care! :P_

_And I know this chapter is shorter than the last but this was a lot harder to write than the paintball...but I'm having fun making Alex be a bit of a bastard so..._

_Ldf x_


	8. Apologies?

_Hopefully I'll be able to wrap this up soon so I can concentrate on the other fics I have online but we'll see (: And very very sorry for the delay but it's taking me a while to get used to being at school again and fitting in homework __**and **__fanfic so...and I know I'm full of excuses but I've been sick and my brain is struggling to put pen to paper so to speak – and AS maths is HARD (why I'm taking that before the GCSE is beyond me but hey)_

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Alex had been on the assault course for hours before anyone came looking. It had started raining as well, to be honest Alex hadn't actually noticed, he'd just been mindlessly running the course and only focusing on putting one foot in front of the other. The repetitiveness of the assault course was a rather good brain numbing activity, something that Alex was currently very grateful for. He hadn't gone and apologised yet but he wanted the whole thing out of his system and this seemed to be the best way to go about it. So far it was working.

"Yo, Rider. You feel like gracing us with your presence?"

Alex appeared to ignore him and just carried on, the blood pounding in his ears making it debateable as to whether he'd actually managed to hear him anyway.

"Alex! It's midnight! Get off the assault course and get your ass into bed!"

Alex carried on oblivious, not seeing, not hearing, not caring.

"CUB! GET YOUR FUCKING ASS OFF THERE NOW!" That one got Alex's attention.

Alex juddered to a halt and whipped his head round towards the sound. It wasn't anyone from the SAS, Alex swore. He hastily tried to cover up his reaction to the name, needless to say he didn't do an overly great job with it.

"Who you yelling? No way is there a soldier in this god forsaken place called Cub." Alex laughed, to anyone who knew him well you could tell it was strained – but Alex didn't work for MI6 for nothing, he was pretty good at faking, he did a lot of that.

"Funny that, I could have sworn I heard that Lynx guy shouting someone called that in the woods earlier. Apparently this Cub dude is the one who shot the Prime Minister with that whole Stormbreaker thing."

"Poor dude, imagine the stick he gets for being landed that name. Ouch. Anyways I'm off to bed, see you later." Alex winked and jogged off. James stood for a minute wondering how Alex had managed to turn it around so it looked as if he had been the one awake not him. He shrugged and ran off after Alex, his bed sounding like a very good idea right about now, it was midnight, freezing and damp after all – the fact that he had to be up for six might have also been a factor in that little decision as well. And he'd thought Basic was bad.

..................................

Alex woke up early the next morning and immediately regretted the past night's actions – running the assault course without warming up, repeatedly, and in the rain apparently wasn't the greatest plan, especially for one who happened to be running it again the next morning. And, rather annoyingly it was still raining and Alex's kit hadn't dried out yet. He grimaced as he pulled on the cold damp clothing, then barely noticed it as soon as he stepped outside and got pelted with rain. The joy.

He left the rest of the teens to their sleeping and headed for some food, there'd only be some of the early bird soldiers, hopefully none of K Unit, so he wouldn't get too much hassle, it seemed to be a favourite pastime of the soldiers – both times he'd visited. It hadn't been too bad so far, some of the soldiers knew him and his reputation, but those who didn't weren't the nicest of guys. Although thinking on it Alex realised that yesterday's events weren't going to be doing him any favours in that department, apparently most of the soldiers had bet on Lynx and lost rather a lot of money in the process. Maybe going towards the pissed off men wasn't the best of plans...

That matter decided Alex whirled round and started running, he didn't care where he just wanted out. If MI6 bloody wanted him to train then they should have bloody well sent him by himself, this hiding how well he knew the compound and the soldiers, and his knowledge about how the place was run was getting tiring. He'd almost been caught yesterday, he was supposed to baa spy, able to keep his cover and all that jazz, and he was struggling to fool teenagers his own age!

Somewhere amongst the self berating Alex's fist had somehow managed to get itself embedded in one of the old wooden huts dotted around. Cursing he pulled it back and shook it out, choosing to ignore the blood for the time being and try and work out _when_ exactly he'd hit the wall. Attempting to ignore his throbbing hand he started running again, this time heading in the direction he'd originally been intending to go last night, maybe there'd only be Eagle there...no Wolf, or Fox, or Snake...or anyone wishing him harm. Well that was a futile wish wasn't it?

Alex walked into the infirmary, having punched out another wall for good measure, and considered shouting...then decided he wanted to get as little attention as possible and instead just walked through the room, responding to any looks he got only by raising his hand and showing them the bloody mess he'd punched it into. So far no one had questioned him for reasons Alex wasn't entirely clear on, he wasn't overly bothered though, so long as they left him alone so he could do what he came to do.

"Eagle?"

The 14 year old tentatively moved into the room, his blonde hair falling in his eyes and shading his face, his eyes flickered nervously and he could have sworn his palms were sweating. The word, well name, he'd just spoken had come out at barely above a whisper, if it had been heard by the older man in the room there had been no sign to tell the teen to continue, or leave as the case might be. Alex still wasn't sure whether his presence would be at all appreciated, it was his fault after all.

A low groan caught the teen spy's attention, and for a second he was tempted to bolt and get as far away from the hell hole he was currently in as possible, then he swallowed his fear and moved towards the still prone form of his, kinda, team mate.

"I'm not stupid, well ok maybe I am, but even I know you ain't gonna be happy I'm here. I mean, I'm kinda why you're here, I was a bit insane with the whole paint ball thing, so, you know, ummm..."

Alex ran a hand through his hair and shifted uncomfortably before carrying on.

"You know why I'm here right, to apologise and all that? Trouble is, I can't make it sound any better than half baked, and you know me – I don't do anything by halves. Best I can do is just say 'm sorry, for being such a jerk and everything, it's not like I had a reason to do it or anything, and being realistic I was kinda a bastard, ok a big bastard, and yeah, I'm sorry you know, you didn't deserve it or anything, especially not this, so yeah, feel better soon man."

Alex all but ran out of the room, narrowly avoiding hitting Wolf on his way out. The man in question tried grabbing hold of the younger boy's hair but Alex was already sprinting and Wolf's hand just grasped thin air. Wolf shouted after him but Alex just kept on running. He'd done what he had to do and he didn't want to deal with anything else tonight. Tomorrow he's have to get up and be himself again, but tonight, tonight, he was gonna be himself and forget it all.

.......................................

Wolf's expression was murderous as he walked into the room, damn kid, what the hell was he doing here anyway? Should have given him the punishment detail anyway never mind the stupid deal, what the hell had he been thinking? He knew what Cub was like!

"Hey..."

The weak voice brought Wolf's attention back to the room.

"You know Cub was in here a minute ago, kept shifting around trying to see if any of you guys were coming – what did you do to him?"

Wolf grinned, "Death match between him and Lynx – damn kid won though." Wolf's grin changed to a scowl as he remembered that fact, "Not overly sure how though – you've seen Lynx with those paintball guns."

"You've not seen out darling Cub's file then, he trained with Scorpia after he left us – got himself shot in the process as well." Eagle smirked slightly at Wolf's face, quickly bringing his face back to a neutral position as he aggravated a delightful purple bruise on his cheek **(and trust me it DOES hurt to talk or anything with one there!) **instead just inwardly laughing at Wolf's shocked expression. "Right above his heart, there's a price on his head now. MI6 are actually making sure he's safe, there's guards round his house and stuff – and trust me when I say that's a first. MI6 aren't the best employer you could have, my brother used to work for them; then quit and went into the army – said there were better working conditions."

Wolf just stared at the man.

"Anyway – I'll let you mull over that little titbit, for now I'm off to sleep. Making the most of it while I can."

Eagle rolled over, well shifted the covers given that he couldn't actually roll over without dislodging the morphine drip in his arm, effectively telling Wolf that the conversation was over. Wolf left still mulling over what Eagle had just told him about Cub, well Alex Rider as he was actually called, or Double 0 Nothing, for some reason Wolf thought the last one suited the brat better. But of course that had nothing to do with the man's dislike of the teen, not at all.

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_Rather annoyingly Alex in this chapter has turned out a LOT like how I'm writing him in my AR fic...tell me if he's alright though...otherwise I'll rewrite my AR one so it works better...but writing him that way wasn't in the plan but I think it works quite well...he should be back to normal soon though – or at least putting on a front_

_Slightly shorter but if I left it much longer I'd lose loads of you so..._

_Ldf x_


	9. Zip Wire

_Trying to get the update time back to what it was but struggling – I'm gonna try and get it down to once a fortnight at least though even if I don't get it back to once a week...I just read this through the other day and spotted a load of mistakes – they're only tiny little inconsistencies with who I decided to send to the camp from CHERUB but I'm gonna go back and edit it slightly – you won't have to reread it though – is just for future reference when it comes up with updates that aren't really updates _

_Anyways – enjoy!_

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Cub had trained with Scorpia. _Cub _had trained with Scorpia. Cub had _trained _with Scorpia. Cub had trained with_ Scorpia._ What the hell was Cub even doing with Scorpia anyway? Scorpia were the bad guys, Cub was with the good guys wasn't he? He was last time anyway - maybe he'd changed sides? But then why would MI6 have sent him? If he was working for Scorpia MI6 wouldn't be protecting him either, and why would Scorpia shoot one of their own? What the fuck had Cub been up to since he was last here? There'd been Point Blanc but what about the rest of the time? If he'd trained with Scorpia as well as them – and done at least two missions, Lynx had told him about Alex's revelation over the Stormbreaker incident, how had he found time to get shot? What on Earth were MI6 doing to the kid?

Only 22 more days left till the kiddies left – only 22 days left to solve the mystery of Cub. Only 22 days until his life went back to normal and he could pretend none of this had ever happened, well so long as he'd figured out what was going on with Cub before then. Otherwise he was going to go insane with now way to get any answers. And 22 days left to see whether these mini spies were all they were cracked up to be, none of them seemed to have figured Cub out yet – and Cub didn't appear to have figured them out either. Wolf was rather surprised at that fact, but then Cub had been more focused on K Unit than his peers. Apparently he was trying to beat Wolf's time on the assault course – and coming pretty close, 12 minutes and 48 seconds, already beating Fox and Eagle.

Wolf stumbled and cursed. Who the hell had left a gun laying about the place? Admittedly he should have been concentrating but still – there shouldn't have been a gun on the floor in any case. Oh shit, he hadn't told that Adams kid that his sister was gonna get booted – ah well, it'd be a nice bit of news for him when he got back if she had been. He wasn't particularly bothered about him after he'd received the titbit of information that it was Adam's sister that had done his cousin's back in.

But Cub had been shot? Why the hell hadn't they been told? Was that what the appendicitis was then? Him getting shot? Why had they been lied to then? Did MI6 not trust them at all? Apparently not given that they hadn't been given Cub's file, how Eagle had gotten hold of it was beyond him. He'd been trying ever since he'd found out Cub was coming.

Those kids were gonna get it tomorrow.

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"Good morning kiddies! We've got 22 days left with you annoying brats and we want them over with. Get in your groups and Fox's group are heading for the woods, Snake's are off to the assault course and my delightful bunch are off to the zip wire. You've got 2 seconds before I want you out of my sight so get gone!" Wolf smiled in satisfaction as the kiddies jumped to it and started running, yes running – high school kids were actually running to do something, wonders will never cease1 . The annoying mini spies were however just stood there, oh yeah he hadn't told them where the zip wire was.

"Get moving brats!"

Cub started moving, somehow managing to make himself look unsure of his movements, well the kid was a spy, and leading them in a rather roundabout route to the zip wire. Wolf was almost impressed that the kid could remember where it was. That didn't stop him being pissed with him though; the kid should have told him he'd been with Scorpia, heck Cub should have told him a lot of things but he didn't. Wolf scowled for the 5th time that morning and started running after the kiddies, in the direct route however, well he wasn't gonna waste his energy running all over the camp. That was stupid kiddies' job.

James was attempting to talk to Alex but the other teen was ignoring him. He didn't want friendships, and he definitely didn't want people finding out his secret – James already knew he'd been called Cub, no amount of attempting to cover that up was going to stop the teen knowing that, he just had to try convince him that he wasn't anything special, he'd just wandered into the woods during the death match. Yeah, like he was gonna believe that. He'd already seen that he kid was smart.

Alex looked over at Wolf, the man once again had a murderous glare on his face and was currently directing it at Alex. Alex shifted and turned away, better to put it off until after the zip wire, he could 'accidentally' get injured then the man wouldn't be able to talk to him until tomorrow. That could work. He didn't like Wolf when he was pissed, it tended to end up with him doing countless press ups, pull ups, sit ups, runs – you name it, if Wolf could come up with a way to make it work they'd be doing it. Some things never change.

After shouting at the kiddies, although even that was starting to lose its enjoyment factor now they'd been here so long already, Wolf turned back to his internal musings while they made their way over the zip wire with orders to run back up after they were done, and repeat until he decided they'd done it enough times. Basically they were going to be doing it until he'd worked out why the hell Cub had been with SCORPIA and why the hell he'd got himself shot. You just don't piss off SCORPIA like that unless you have a death wish. And even Cub didn't have that bigger a death wish, although his attitude lately was making Wolf question his assessment of that fact.

Somehow lacking the energy to run Alex was trudging back to the top of the zip wire not even bothering to reply to the comments sent his way from the rest of the kids who were actually running. They could go ahead and run if they wanted to, he didn't want to and there wasn't any SAS around to stop him. Besides, this was the first real chance he'd gotten to think about who exactly the Henderson's lot were, they seemed way too good to be ordinary school kids, but what else could they be? It's not like they were spies, he was the only one of them around...wasn't he? If he wasn't he was going to revert back to his Scorpia training and assassinate Blunt and Jones – for real this time – for using him when they had all these kids at their disposal.

Now that he was on the point, what was with the t-shirts they were all wearing? James was the only one in black, but why bother with their prefect system or whatever when they're at a SAS camp? What was the point? Surely they could all just wear normal shirts, no need for all this colour coding business. Yeah, that prefect thing was actually his idea but thinking about it did make it seem illogical. Alex shook his head furiously, what was with him lately? He couldn't do anything without second guessing himself. He needed a break, and not a going-on-a-mission sort of break, a real one, where there was time for some real R&R...

"Rider!"

Wolf's voice cut through Alex's musings and the teen looked up sharply, cursing as he saw the man beckoning for him to go towards him. Perfect. Wolf wanted to talk to him, the fates really were enjoying playing in his life recently. Was it too much to ask that they leave him alone even for a day? Apparently so given the next words that came out of Wolf's mouth.

"I know about Scorpia," Wolf muttered when he finally made it up there, "and in case you were wondering I also know about that bullet hole just above your heart."

Alex just stared at him and quickly muttered something along the lines of "no idea what you're talking about" and pushed to the front of the queue for the zip wire to get away. He wasn't telling Wolf about his life, he'd been shot, end of story. He'd been dragged back here by MI6 and he really didn't want to let anyone in on want was going on in his life. His plan was quite simply to get through the remaining 3 weeks and hope nothing else major happened, or that MI6 would pull him out for a mission, hey that could work. Maybe he should go hassle someone in the house so he could ring the bank...they could give him a mission right? Just something basic to get him out of here for a few days. His classmates wouldn't miss him and he doubted the other's would care, they'd only known him for a week. Even if they thought something was up they wouldn't be able to prove it, plus it would give him a chance to look into them. There was something slightly off about them, he just didn't know what. They were up on his level of fitness which was rare when you were talking about teenagers and knew at least 2 languages fluently from what he'd heard. Oh yeah, he definitely wanted to look into them.

.....................................

"You think Cub's gotten anywhere in regards to who the other kids are?"

K Unit (minus Eagle) were spread out, well as spread out as you can get with the size of the hut they were in, and discussing one Alex Rider, well Cub to them.

"I dunno, he's definitely gonna be on edge around us now that I told him what Eagle found out about him. Not sure about how far he's got with working out who they are, and let's face it, he's gonna be extremely pissed when he does find out. MI6 have been using him for ages and there's been a whole school's worth of teenage spies available to them that actually want to be part of all this.I'm not sure who I'd be scared of most in that situation, Cub or Eagle when he's high."

The other two men laughed and continued their discussion, eventually leading on to how they were going to torture the kiddies. That seemed to be a more fun discussion for the soldiers and it continued long into the night, something about a 2 mile swim was mentioned, along with a 3 day survival hike. Well they had to get some fun somewhere in this Godforsaken camp didn't they?

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_As previously mentioned I switched the timelines so my original plan has gone...and obvs I couldn't have the Snakehead stuff in here cos Fox is still with SAS so yea – slightly dodgy but I'm gonna come back and edit all the chapters sometime soon. And not sure yet but I might just gloss over a few days in the next chapter cos the main part of what's going on is in the last week...well it is if I actually stick to my plan for once!_

_And one major error I spotted is that in the paintball bit I said there were only 10 days left (that needs changing...probably to about 25)...as I said my original plan was for 2 weeks so there are gonna be a few like that but there is definitely 3 weeks left at the camp! Really loving this fic – but I do kinda want it wrapped up soon so I can concentrate on my AR one._

_1 – no offence meant – I'm a high school kid myself!_

_**Do you want me to have him try get a quickie mission????? I have some funny plans if he does but it depends if you guys think it'd be unrealistic :D **_

_Ldf x_


	10. We're bored

_Hey guys...unfortunately I'm back at school soon but I'm gonna try get this out before I go :)_

* * *

It was a lot easier to slip out of the huts at night than Alex had thought it would be, everyone was knackered and they'd all pretty much fallen asleep the second their heads hit the bed – most of them hadn't even bothered getting changed. Jogging into the woods that surrounded the camp he stole a last glance at the hut he'd just left, if he got his way with MI6 then he wasn't coming back here, now all he had to do was convince Blunt that he really needed Alex for a mission. Shouldn't be too hard, the man seemed quite happy to send him off places where he could die at every second whenever it suited his purposes so he could bloody well do the same when Alex needed an escape. Not that he'd thought this through very well, was there even a phone up at the house? Or internet? Internet would be good, he could find out some more about the Henderson's kids, and hack MI6's network. Theoretically he should be able to manage, he knew Mrs Jones' password – she had apparently thought he hadn't been watching, why he wanted to he had no clue, but he supposed it'd be fun to send Blunt loads of spam jokes and annoying viruses that would stop him being able to work.

The house was silent, a fact Alex was extremely thankful for, as he crept towards it. He'd seen the tell tale signs of an internet connection and a phone line and felt a sense of elation, at least he'd be able to do something before he got caught. Like ringing MI6 to get him the hell out of there. He wasn't exactly bonding with his schoolmates, they were all in separate groups – he couldn't really even talk to Tom, the other teen being in the other hut. And he was seriously getting sick of Wolf's attitude, so he deserved some of it but the man was picking on him – honestly, it wasn't his fault that MI6 had sent a load of kids back here again. Actually it wasn't his fault for a lot of stuff that had happened but he still seemed to get the blame.

Slipping inside an open window and inwardly thanking God he was small enough to fit, Alex looked around and headed off in a random direction. He had no idea where anything was so was just going with the flow, he'd stumble across a phone soon enough surely. The place had to have more than one, it was pretty big, he didn't even care if it was so archaic it barely worked, he just wanted a phone. Internet would be better but a phone would do. Alex wandered around the house extremely pissed they weren't allowed to stay here, the place had heating! It was fantastic!

Finding a phone and cheering as he did so Alex punched in MI6's number, he'd forced Blunt to give him it after the Damian Cray incident, and waited impatiently until someone picked up.

"Put Blunt on now, tell him it's one pissed off Alex Rider who will be on his doorstep and using what Scorpia taught him if he doesn't talk to me."

Alex's voice was flat and cold, effectively scaring the newbie who was monitoring the phones into doing what he wanted and patching him through to Blunt, besides even he'd heard of Scorpia and if this guy had been trained by them then...

"Good evening Alan. I want out."

"But Alex, this is important for you – you need more training and you can see your friends in the process."

"See my friends!? Are you kidding me Alan? I'm at a fucking SAS camp in the middle of nowhere training with kids who rather shockingly can actually keep up with me – surprise surprise none of them are my school mates."

"Well that's MI5's doing. Whine at them not me Alex – is there a real reason behind this call? One that caused you to threaten my new secretary with Scorpia? Or did you just want a rant?"

"Actually, and I can't believe I'm saying this, I want a mission. I want out of this hellhole and I'll go to Alaska if you want me to, just get me out of here. Wait, what do MI5 have to do with this?"

Alex could just feel Blunt shift uncomfortably, "There is no need for you to know that fact Alex. I am sure you'll figure it out on your own, think of it as a test, a mission if you will."

"Fat lot of good you guys are, mind you it's the same when I always need you. I'll see you when I get back – but don't expect me to be cooperative."

"I wouldn't expect anything less Alex, I wouldn't expect anything less." Alan Blunt smiled, yes the cold hearted man actually smiled, as he put down the phone. He knew Alex Rider was a good catch even if he was coming close to losing him. Now however he just had to hope that the blonde teenager didn't find out exactly who those other teenagers were, he didn't doubt that Alex knew thousands of painful ways to kill him.

* * *

Morning came much too soon for Alex Rider, all he could console himself with was that every morning he woke up meant one less days left in the hell hole called Brecon Beacons. Only 20 days more, he could live with that, he just had to get through 20 more days of hell surrounded by SAS men who were out for his blood after the paint ball incident. Yippee. Oh yeah, and 20 days surrounded by kids he'd never see again but he still had to hide who he was from. For at least the hundredth time he cursed Alan Blunt to an eternity in a fiery hell. It was no wonder the man didn't have a life outside of work.

Eagle once again looked way too cheerful for this early in the morning. A glance at his watch before he left the hut had told Alex it was 5.30am. They better have a damn good reason for waking him up at this time, he'd only gotten back from the house at 2 having tried and failed to find a computer connected to the internet. Of course Blunt had been annoyingly vague when Alex rang him again an hour later to grill him on Henderson's. Rather annoyingly MI5 kept popping up – what the fuck did they have to do with a school!?

"Listen up kiddies, we're getting bored of babysitting you so guess what? You're going on a weeklong survival camp in the wood. Backpacks and rations are over there. We'll find you if there's any problems – oh and Adams, Wolf needs a word." Eagle grinned at the expression on James' face as he realised that a big scary SAS man was going to talk to him, alone. Well it was either that fact or the evil glint in his eye as he'd been speaking.

As the 59 other teens went to grab packs James made his way over to the burly SAS soldier.

"One of you delightful brats has injured my cousin again – if your sister had anything to do with it this time then she's out. Surprised she got to stay after the last time to be honest, I wanted her out – bloody brat. Should have told you this a while ago, wasn't going to bother at all actually but I had a change of heart. Any involvement in his injury and she's out – and you're not allowed to leave. You got that?"

"Yes sir!" James said hurriedly, backing away as he spoke, he grabbed the remaining backpack and sprinted off to catch up with his friends. There was a time and a place for him to think about the news Wolf had just given him – at an SAS camp just about to go on a survival camp/trek thing was not one of those times and places. Actually even thinking about the possibility Lauren might be booted and he'd have to stay wasn't at all high on his list of priorities. In actual fact it was very near the bottom, just above school work.

"Get your ass moving James! Not gonna wait any longer for you – you can camp alone, god knows your head's big enough that you probably think you can."

James gave the boy the finger and jogged towards the group of them that were left, most of the kids had all gone into the woods already. A whole 5 of them had decided to wait for James – the other 14 CHERUBs relishing the opportunity to escape him for a while. Not that he'd pulled rank yet but...

Alex had quickly grabbed the opportunity to spend some time with Tom, the one person who knew that he'd been here before and about his missions. He was getting desperate to have a good moan, especially after the night before's failed attempt at getting out of the camp. Well he wasn't going to moan exactly, that was too girly for a Rider, but he definitely wanted to rant – in the most manly way possible of course, he couldn't tarnish the Rider tradition.

The two teens had started hiking straight off, the plan being to get as far away from everyone and everything as possible before setting up a camp. Then maintaining that distance for as long as possible and putting off the inevitable someone coming into their personal space and destroying the tiny bit of peace they had. Besides, if they accidentally got too far away they could 'get lost' and 'not be able to find their way back'. Well that was the plan. Unfortunately the Henderson's kids seemed to have had the same idea and were making a _lot _of noise as they trampled through the woods behind them. Alex groaned and pulled Tom onto a nearly hidden path that headed straight for the perimeter of the camp – and if they were really lucky a way out. Alex had enough money for a hotel for a few nights and Tom could buy food, they'd be fine for a week or so...

"What the hell Alex? Where we going?"

"Away." Alex ground out still dragging Tom behind him by his shirt. "Just away."

Tom shrugged and allowed himself to be pulled further into the woods; he'd leave questioning Alex until later, after all they had a week to do whatever the hell they liked – no SAS hounding on them every two minutes. Tom smiled, at the minute life was pretty good and he liked it. Even if life did involve him being at a constantly raining SAS camp with no chance of escape. Thinking about it, maybe life wasn't so good.

Alex forced on through the woods, shoving branches out of the way that would swing back and hit a rather annoyed Tom in the face prompting many exclamations of pain and "Jesus Alex, what the hell? I am here you know, please don't hurt me!" he stopped those after a while though, Alex turned and gave him a death glare and Tom wasn't overly eager to experience what would happen if he said it again, the other teen was a black belt in karate after all.

Spying the perimeter Alex finally stopped, throwing his bag on the floor and leaning against a tree. It was barbed wire, he was not impressed. His eyes closed and he groaned. Sensing they'd be there a while Tom copied Alex and 5 minutes later both teens were asleep relishing the opportunity to get a chance to do so undisturbed.

* * *

_Crap ending but cos of English coursework this has been pushed back and back so I decided to get it out before some of you killed me :P hope you like it anyway_

_Ldf x_


	11. Survival: Part 1

_Thanks so much guys – sorry that its late but I've been dealing with some crap in the form of my best friend as well as life in general and haven't had much time to write...I will try to have this out in teh next few days but no promises – sorry!] It's also slightly shorter and a bit choppy...I'm kinda struggling to get the hike/camp thing going – I know where I need it to end up just not how to get there..._

_**And again I've slightly changed something – in order to incorporate Snakehead (which I really needed to for this chapter – or at least in the way I planned it I really did) I'm saying that the entire Unit was there and that mission where they're working with MI6 is what triggers Ben to go work for them – I know that's taking it waaaaaaaaaaay into the realms of AU beyond what it already is but we don't have a reason for his moving in the books (or if we do I've completely missed it!) so I'm making this up to work.**_

_**In regards to Alex wanting a mission – he's really desperate to get away from the camp and would do just about anything, even if it means subjecting himself to that sort of hell – just thought I'd clear that up in case you were wondering, I know it's OOC x**_

* * *

"So Al, are we gonna set this tent up or what? No offense to whatever plan you have but it's looking like it's about to rain and I really don't want to be outside when that happens. Actually I don't want to be here at all so can we just set it up and then sleep for a long long time?"

Alex just grunted and leant further back against the tree, he so did not want to move – he was way more interested in sleep than setting up a tent, he'd slept out in the rain before anyway it wouldn't kill them. Heck it might even be fun, apart from the being cold and wet part and the mud part and the being at an SAS camp with no way to get warm part, but apart from that – fun.

"Alex! Wake up, you know I can't get this tent up by myself – let's face it, last time I tried I just broke it! Alex!" As if to prove his point Tom promptly fell over the bag containing the tent and hit the floor with a loud "Ow!"

Alex burst out laughing and consented, while Tom was a good friend he would definitely whine if Alex made him stay out in the rain to sleep because he didn't want to move and put the tent up. Besides, thinking about it maybe it wasn't the best plan to stay out in the rain all night – plus the tent would be warmer than the mud. As he pulled the tent out of the bag he scowled, it was absolutely filthy and the groundsheet was ripped – so much for it being warmer/drier in there. All this tent was going to do was give them the sort of protection an umbrella did, just about nonexistent and there for show more than anything else. Mind you, what more did he expect? He was at the oh so aptly named Hell on Earth, they were so not gonna care about the condition of the tents they gave to their babysittees, or the condition of the tents when they used them themselves to be honest.

After finally getting the disgusting tent up, not without brushing out the inner which was full of mud and things Alex didn't even want to think about, even he had standards when he had the choice and acting like he was a refugee again was not high on his list of priorities – he was just glad Ben hadn't brought that up yet, and especially glad that he hadn't brought up Ash, even Tom didn't know about that part, he'd only ever glossed over the parts relating to his godfather in a "Oh yeah, they paid this man to act as my father" way. He really didn't wanna open that can o' worms and tell Tom that one of the SAS men they were with had shot his godfather

He wasn't entirely sure why Ben had even been there – STOP thinking about it Alex, get on with the week you have with your best friend free of said SAS men. God knows once you get back you're gonna wind up being sent off to Sudan or somewhere ludicrous like that. Let's just ignore the fact you actually wanted a mission so you could get out of here, that little titbit's not important – being sent to Sudan is – a quickie could only really be in the UK anyway. Alex wasn't planning on loaning himself out to anyone else after ASIS, but that wouldn't stop MI6 from sending him around the globe without a moment's thought, at least with them he knew the system and could fight it to some degree – it made him feel slightly better about all the crap he did, only slightly mind.

"...Earth to Alex – there's people near. You wanna tell them to shove off or what?"

Alex shook himself and replied oh so eloquently with a "Wha-?"

"You wanna tell that lot to shove off? They're like the other side of that bush."

"Nah, we'll be fine – not like they're gonna listen to the druggie is it? Anything I say is automatic BS – they won't believe anything I say, even if I came straight out and told them about my job. Well my blackmailed into so I don't go into care job with some sons of bitches who think they own everybody's lives – but of course they'll believe I'm with SO, isn't every kid?"

Tom pretended to think on it and then conceded to Alex's point – even if they were there no one was going to listen anyway, he was crazy and Alex was a druggie. He was surprised anyone listened to them, ever, including teachers, although it was kinda their job so they had to listen to them, even if they didn't take them seriously. Realising he was going off into the realms of madness Tom stopped himself from thinking, not that that was a hard thing to do due to the fact that his brain didn't do all that much work and was quite glad to stop the rather intense process it was currently going through.

"Arm wrestle?"

Alex smirked, "Oh I am so gonna win!"

* * *

"Hey up Jamie boy, you know whether Lauren's been booted yet?"

James glared at Paul, stupid obnoxious brat, how would he know? Wolf wasn't exactly telling him anything, besides even if Zara did make him stay he'd just refuse mission after mission until he got too old. Mac hadn't thought through all the ways he could leave CHERUB without actually leaving it seemed, although Zara might actually manage to come up with them if she really thought about it. Realising he hadn't responded, to both the stupid name and the question he bit out a response telling Paul where to shove that nickname and letting him know that if he even brought up the topic again he'd find himself in a rather uncomfortable position.

Paul backed away as James described precisely what he would do if the subject was ever brought up again and promptly managed to fall over the half put up tent. Ripples of laughter spread throughout the group and Paul scowled as James leant back against a tree smirking. There was a reason he was so successful on missions involving jack ass kids, this being one of the prime examples. He just fit in so well with them it was like he'd been there forever. Made him a good agent, but didn't bode well for relationships on campus, especially with his rep as a ladies man.

He looked over and the rest of the group were still laughing, James, being a cocky so and so, basking in the limelight like he'd been there all his life. Bloody twat, maybe an accident on the assault course was to come when they got back to the main camp and started going through all that hell again. He'd rather redo basic than this, which was definitely saying something. No one ever wanted to redo basic, it just didn't happen. But then again, the SAS training was a new kind of hell...

He glanced in the other direction and saw the Henderson's kid who managed to keep up with them wrestling a considerably weaker looking teen who was apparently his friend. Hmmm, maybe wrestling could work as a punishment – so long as James had been drugged, he had a rather large advantage in the muscle department.

* * *

Fox, Snake, Wolf and Eagle were crammed into a hut watching kiddies try, keyword: try, to put tents up and fail rather spectacularly. They hadn't seen Cub and Cub Jr yet and they were pretty sure there wasn't a blind spot in these cameras. They weren't that irresponsible that they'd leave the kids on a survival hike with no supervision – well, they were but none of them wanted to get binned so decided they best show a little bit of interested in the kids' welfare. Most of the mini spies had been seen, even as just an arm or a leg but Cub had been lost since the moment he stepped into the woods. After seeing Alex when he was on his last mission however, none of them were willing to say for certain that he was even still in the camp. They'd been called an hour ago to say someone had rung MI6, and after Fox had denied it, he'd told the others he was deferring to MI6 after the thing with the kids was over, the only logical explanation was Cub, they just didn't know why.

Another search of all the cameras still brought up no Cub and they were starting to wonder whether the kid had managed to get out, but if he had why would he take Cub Jr? MI6 weren't going to send yet another 14 year old boy on ludicrous missions were they? They weren't that bad, and if they were then there was no way they were allowing Fox to go to them after the kiddie assignment. Their teammate would wind up dead within a week if the missions they'd seen in Alex's file were anything to go by. The kid either had a hell of a lot of bad luck or a hell of a lot of good, depended on which way you looked at it really. Fox hoped it wasn't either, luck has to run out someday and chances are it'd be when Alex needed it most.

Something Ben was going to make sure didn't happen no matter what it took, he'd already taken a bullet for the kid, and he'd do a hell of a lot more if he had to. Someone had to stick up for the kid.

* * *

"Ok, ok, I admit defeat, will you let go of my arm now?"

Alex smirked and let go of Tom, the other boy promptly grabbing his wrist and rubbing it to try and soothe the pain, Alex merely leant back and lay on the ground.

"Told you I'd win – what's that now, 5 – 0?"

"Yeah yeah – don't rub it in." Tom pouted, they used to be evenly matched, like a year ago, before Alex got involved in all of this MI6 BS anyway. At that point Tom could, on very rare and few and far between occasions, get the drop on Alex, but now? Now he was lucky if Alex didn't know he was round the corner, the teen was hyper aware of his surroundings, way more than anyone else Tom knew anyway – and that included all the kids that seemed to have developed Bully radars and would run off as soon as one of them stepped onto school grounds. Mind you, how many other teens worked for MI6?

* * *

_I'm sorry this is late! I really really am! On the plus side I came 2__nd__ in a story writing contest recently so *cheers* but I seriously am sorry so...and even so I may edit this later on, if I do I'll tell you x (I've also gone back and edited chapters 1-5 to fix a few errors, nothing noticeable but...)_

_And thanks to my English teacher:_

_Miss: Annabel are you analysing that poem?_

_Me: (when I'm clearly writing about anything but the poem) Yep (shows piece of work with chapter on it)_

_Miss: Good, don't forget your coursework is due in next week (walks off)_

_**And again - in regards to Alex wanting a mission – he's really desperate to get away from the camp and would do just about anything, even if it means subjecting himself to that sort of hell – just thought I'd clear that up in case you were wondering, I know it's OOC x**_

_Please review anyway – I love them!_

_Oh yeah – and what do you think of Fox's character at the minute???_

_Ldf x_


	12. Survival: Part 2

_Arghhh! I just can't get this chapter written for some reason! Might take a while...and for some random reason I'm doing a quick flick back to campus purely to make up the words I needed to pull from somewhere..._

...................

Punishment detail sucked. Big time. Mind you, at least it wasn't the ditches and she wasn't getting muddy like last time. Apparently James was though, that training exercise they'd gone on was to an SAS camp in Wales. An SAS camp well known for being rainy, muddy and having some goddamn bastards that were worse than Large running the place. Speaking of Large – she was well and truly fucked when he came back. He hadn't exactly liked her much after the first time.

...........

James groaned. The last time he'd been this muddy was in Basic, something he had hoped he'd left behind once he finished it – at the very least he wanted nothing more to do with Large. Something his sister didn't seem to appreciate one bit. He had no doubt now that Meryl knew every detail about the deal he'd made with Mac last time this happened, Wolf's manic grin had been enough for him to work that one out. He just hoped Lauren didn't do anything stupid over the next 16 days before he got back. At least they were back to the main camp in the morning – after Russia survival training wasn't something James particularly enjoyed, despite it having saved his life. But then admitting that to himself would mean admitting that Large had done something helpful for him, over than nearly get his sister booted.

The night sky was oddly peaceful, it had finally stopped raining and there was no cloud cover. So yes that lead to a cold night but anything was better than the rain even the bone chilling cold that was bound to set in if he stayed outside much longer. The other CHERUBs had fallen asleep long ago, none of them were speaking to James anyway. In true James fashion he had of course tried to pull rank to get out of doing some of the nastier jobs which had rather backfired and lead to him doing all the nastier jobs and none of them speaking to him as they held true to the threats they'd made at the start of the month in hell.

His ankle was still throbbing from when he'd fallen on it earlier, he'd not taken his boots off yet, if he couldn't get them back on in this place he'd be scrubbing mud out of his skin for weeks and even then he was sure his foot would still be filthy. Not to mention his socks, there'd be no hope of saving them if they wound up on the floor in this place. He pulled himself up and hobbled into the tent wincing as he put too much weight on his foot. Tomorrow was gonna be a long day. Curled up in the tent James slipped into a restless sleep plagued with endless scenarios of exactly what Lauren could do wrong between now and when he got back that would result in her getting kicked out. Why was his family so screwed up? Couldn't they have one normal day at some point in their lives?

..............

Fox thumped the side of the cabin in frustration, almost Wolf like in the growl that came out of his mouth, he quickly realised this and made a mental note to never do so again however – one Wolf was bad enough thanks. Eagle was sat beside him snoring with a distinct trail of drool from coming from the corner of his mouth leading Fox to become rather scared about what the man was dreaming about, and the fact that the man was incapable of staying awake even when he'd done nothing all day. He wasn't actually sure which worried him most given Eagle's mindset during the day, when that was allowed to roam free...he shuddered and moved his mind away from that line of thought quickly.

They'd pulled night watch on the kiddies and he was having no more luck pulling up Alex on the camera feed than he had 5 hours ago, or 5 minutes ago for that matter. Somehow the teen and his friend had managed to completely escape every single camera on site – something always thought to be impossible, completely and utterly impossible. He didn't know why he was suddenly so protective over the teenaged spy, and he wasn't certain whether he was entirely comfortable with it. The kid just had a way of getting to people like that, even Wolf had warmed up to the kid after he snowboarded down a mountain on an ironing board, and getting Wolf to like you was rather a feat, it had taken the unit almost the entirety of training to get the man to treat them half like equal beings, the man wasn't bi on making friends it seemed.

Movement on the side of one of the cameras drew his attention, but soon became disappointment as he realised that it still wasn't Alex he'd located on screen, just one of the annoying kids from Cub's school who were only really sent as a cover for the annoying mini-spies and Alex. He was hoping they'd work it out soon, he was slightly antsy over the amount of money he'd bet towards the start of the kids' visit, there wasn't all that long left. 2 weeks roughly. And in the week the kids had been in the woods he'd not once seen Alex on the cameras. By this point even Wolf was wondering where the hell he'd got to. There was only one night left and then they were back to the assault course and hell in the form of push ups and sit ups until they collapsed – Wolf and Eagle's idea not his.

He took a gulp of the coffee sat beside him and groaned resigning himself to only finding Alex once the kids returned from the woods the next morning. Not the ideal situation but still, at least the laughs the other teens had given them had been worth it, you'd think that they'd at least know how to cook if not put up a tent. Weren't any of them in Scouts or whatever it was called? Loads of kids had been when he was their age; he remembered sulking because his Mum had said he couldn't go. Still, the fact that none of them were capable of fending for themselves had made the week rather more enjoyable than they'd originally thought it would be.

_...Camera 3 – Day 2..._

_One of the Brookland teens was sat outside the tent on what looked to be his rucksack with a murderous expression on his face. The cause of this expression was quickly identified as K Unit looked at the boy's shirt. Someone had gotten mud on it. It was there, so long as you looked really REALLY close right towards the bottom left corner of his shirt. Typical city kid – scared of a bit of mud._

_...Camera 6 – Day 5..._

_6 teenagers were just laid on the ground. The excitement of camping having long since worn off when they realised they had no idea how to cook and had been living off the cereal and fruit they'd found in their packs for the past 5 days. They were obviously complaining but unfortunately for the SAS men the cameras didn't come with microphones and none of them were adept enough at lip reading to actually decipher what they were saying. They were however smart enough to realise that it probably centred around them, and the severe lack of food. Well it wasn't their fault the kiddies didn't know enough to be able to heat up the tins of beans they'd been given._

_...Camera 2 – Day 3..._

_Two boys just walked into the view of the camera absolutely covered in mud from head to toe and looking quite disgusted at the fact. A quick search of the surrounding cameras lead to the reason – the two had fallen into the mud near the assault course, which was regularly hosed down in order to stop it drying out in the few periods between the rain. Trust the kiddies to manage to fall when they weren't even running the thing, Eagle stayed rather silent through his team mates' laughter and smiled uncomfortably – probably not a good idea to mention that he'd done the exact same thing then..._

_...All Cameras – Day 6..._

.............

Alex woke up that morning far too cheerful for Tom's liking. They were going back to the rather aptly named hell that afternoon and Tom would have quite happily have remained out here for the final weeks of their 'field trip'. It was just as cold, muddy and rainy but there was a rather noticeable absence of shouting SAS men and assault courses that made you puke just to look at them, never mind actually run the things. Thinking of said assault course made Tom groan and seriously consider flopping to the ground and never getting back up.

"Don't bother packing your stuff. They've got no idea where we are, and trust me they won't care enough to come looking. Well not until Blunt gets on at the Sergeant going on about how I'm needed for a mission after this and that they better find me and have me ready – they might send K Unit for me then, but until then," Alex dropped to the ground and made the most of the weak sunlight that was filtering through the trees.

Walking past James barely managed to stop himself from confronting the teen on the other side of the trees. Blunt!? He was head of Special Ops, they worked with _adults _that's why CHERUB existed – well possibly, James had never really paid much attention when all this was explained to him. Why was Rider going on about him and missions with so much venom in his voice? He was just an exceptionally fit teenage school boy that was managing to keep up with the highly trained CHERUBs, wasn't he? Somehow James now found himself doubting that particular fact as he listened to the rest of the conversation.

"You've only just got back Al! And I know for a fact that the whole reason we're here is cos of SCORPIA – you really do piss off the wrong people, you know that?"

Alex smirked at Tom's statement – it was true. He always did seem to piss off the wrong people, unfortunately those people often had guns which had led to him snowboarding down a mountain on an ironing board (he'd never managed to look at an ironing board in the same way since), and running for his life on countless occasions – not to mention nearly dying and being sent into space, but who wants to brag? He pulled at his jacket and turned towards his friend holding his arm up in a challenge Tom accepted and lay next to his friend gripping his hand.

"Yeah, Blunt – not such a big fan of letting me get away from him funnily enough, I really can't think why though – ooh I know! Maybe it's because they love screwing with me, or maybe it's the fact that I'm better than all their fancily trained guys. Yeah I can totally just walk away from it all."

Alex's voice oozed sarcasm with a healthy helping of hatred thrown in for good measure as he forced his friend's hand to the floor. Tom laughed nervously unsure exactly how serious his friend was. Alex flipped over onto his back and started ripping up the grass beneath him staring absently at the tree in front of him. As Tom looked over Alex's head turned sharply towards the bushes and he held up a hand to silence anything Tom might say. Springing silently to his feet Alex made his way towards the bushes his feet barely making a sound as he headed towards the branch he'd just heard snap. James swore to himself as he realised the other teen was moving towards him and attempted to move away without making any more noise, thinking about it maybe he should have paid more attention when Large gave that stealth lecture...or he could just run and hope for the best...

* * *

_Sorry? My life has just been full of crap recently and I've barely managed to get this written – if it seems really forced in places that's cos it is! 800 words pulled out of my ass pretty much so you could have a decent length chapter..._

_Not much action regardless, I couldn't think of anything to write...except the part that's for the next chapter..._

_Ldf x_


	13. Cover Story

_Hoping this lives up to expectations – this isn't going to finish it off (unless it runs away from me) but one side will learn everything...possibly...my plan is sketchy at best...*shrugs* I don't do well at sticking to what I plan anyway so I actually don't have a clue what this will be like...and for everyone else reading this who's also in the middle of exam season...Good Luck! (and if you're doing the legacy RE I feel for you – I bruised my finger writing for those two hours!)_

...............

Deciding that the best strategy was to act like an idiotic teen, an annoying voice in the back of his head that sounded a lot like Lauren claiming that he had no need to act like one because that's what he was, and hope for the best James mock stumbled and let himself fall to the ground unfortunately landing on a rather sharp stone that scraped through his shirt. He hissed in pain then looked up as a shadow fell over his face. He put on a sheepish grin and saw Alex holding his hand out, the other boy smirking slightly at James' expense.

"Thanks," he muttered, "don't suppose you've got any water left? One of my friends was supposed to go get some this morning but couldn't be bothered."

Alex grinned, "Sure, you fancy an arm wrestle while you're here? Only I've got sick of beating Tom, either he's stupidly weak or I'm just ludicrously strong, it's one or the other."

An indignant snort and a yell came from the other side of the trees, "I've beat you loads of times! Okay, maybe once...alright not even that but still! I AM NOT WEAK!"

Alex merely laughed and led James towards their yet to be dismantled camp site. He threw James his own barely touched water bottle and lay back down next to Tom in the rapidly fading patch of sunlight that had broken through the clouds that morning. James flopped down in front of him and held his arm up grinning in challenge. Alex smirked and held up his own in response grabbing hold of James' hand before the other teen could say anything.

"So who's Blunt? I heard you talking, not deliberately like, and it sounded like you don't really get on – family troubles?"

Alex shifted slightly, undetectable to Tom and barely noticed by James before he answered. "Pretty much, he's my ex military bastard of an Uncle, he's obsessed – I swear to God he's gonna force me into the army, he's already got me in with Cadets and on army weekends. Really hate the guy, he's been looking after me since my Dad died when I was a kid, if you're looking for me and Tom on a night you'll find us on a street corner getting told to shift by PCSOs 'cos we're frightening some old biddy," Alex slammed James' fist into the floor, "cos obviously we're drug dealers and thieves out to corrupt her precious grandkids,"

James shrugged, "Wouldn't know, I spend all my time at a boarding school, they don't let us out much – too scared we'll ruin their reputation or something, I say us, I mean me and a few friends, everyone else fits their perfect little mould,"

Tom watched the two awkwardly, partly due to not knowing where to join in but he knew how close Alex was to getting busted, and he did not want to stick his foot in it and muck up Alex's story. Maybe he should get some of that lie training, and maybe actually decide on an official story – at least then he wouldn't look like a lemon just nodding and smiling while they got on, laughing and joking with each other complaining about the instructors and they hell they were all going through. He picked at a loose thread on his sleeve as the two wrestled, they were pretty evenly matched, Alex had won four out of the seven and James was looking like he was gonna make it a 50/50 split.

"I better go, the kids I'm with aren't exactly my biggest fans and it's not gonna help my cause if I don't help them pack their kit up. Lazy buggers, they could do with learning how to do their own never mind asking me,"

James ambled off, Alex finally relaxed and Tom just looked hurt, as if the other kid could beat Alex when he couldn't, that was just not fair. Being too manly to pout Tom merely remained silent as Alex set about making himself comfy on the grass. Alex closed his eyes and sighed, there was definitely something up with that James kid, his story just seemed off (not that his was much better but it was a spur of the moment thing), he didn't know of any schools whose kids didn't go into the local town on weekends, except for Point Blanc but that's a whole different kettle of fish. Unwilling to fall asleep Alex started humming to himself as he mulled over how long they could stay here. They'd have to move camp, he knew of a few other sites that were camera blind spots, that much was obvious, and maybe leave a false trail behind, and of course they'd have to time it right. If K Unit were looking at the cameras when they moved it was game over.

"So Tom, how do you feel about screwing with the bastards that love making my life hell?"

..............................

"Good afternoon kiddies, that week wasn't so bad was it? Annoyingly you all seem to have made it back, hmm, hoped that would have killed some of you off, never mind, I thought we'd go over the zip wire today, well I say we I mean you, and by zip wire I mean plummet off a cliff. That alright with you guys? Thought so, good. Get moving!"

"Cub's not back, his friend's not either," Fox murmured into Wolf's ear, "not seen either of them since they left the main site about a week ago,"

Jogging behind the grumbling teenagers Wolf, yes Wolf, shot a concerned glance at Fox, but only a minute one barely lasting a second and then his glare was back. "Send some new recruits to go find them, the brat doesn't need us looking for him, if he's stupid enough to not come back then I'm not wasting my time on him, the kiddies are more fun anyway. Double 0 Nothing just doesn't cut it anymore. And since I'm feeling so generous get them to tell him there's no punishment if he comes back without a fight. If he's dragged here kicking and screaming however, that's a whole different story."

Fox's answering nod was barely perceptible and he took off in the opposite direction, jogging slowly so as not to attract attention from the other teens who were still oblivious to their two missing members. Mind you, with the way Wolf was they'd be getting punished for it soon enough, especially since Alex wasn't exactly everyone's favourite person at the minute. And there was one question bugging the entire unit, well not Eagle, what the hell had Cub done to get himself shot? SCORPIA don't shoot their own unless you betray them, but realistically Cub can't have actually been in SCORPIA properly anyway. He must have been caught in the crossfire or something. Surely the boy wasn't that deep in the world of the spies?

......................

Suitably drenched 58 kids had been told they had 5 minutes to shower and then they were running the assault course. The majority of them not bothering with the shower part and just flopping down on the floor craving even that 5 minute break. At least in Basic it wasn't all physical, you might have been cold but at least you got to sit down. The more unfit of the teens were gasping for breath and looking half dead and even the CHERUBs were feeling the strain after everything they'd been through that afternoon.

Alex hadn't been found on any of the cameras and a whole 2 recruits had been despatched to the woods to look for them with orders to come back once the sun went down. As far as the other kids were aware the two were on punishment duty so wouldn't be in the huts tonight. Wolf had no intention of telling MI6 anything unless they wanted Alex and Alex had no intention of being found, well not for a while anyway. And the fact that they still hadn't been able to find out what the hell the boy had been doing with SCORPIA of all people, never mind getting himself shot, and being involved in the Stormbreaker incident was annoying the unit to no end. Whatever the kid had been doing it sure as hell wasn't fun and getting shot? They knew MI6 were bastards but getting a 14 year old shot? That was going just a bit too far.

"You actually reckon that Rider kid's on punishment duty? How much do you wanna bet he's done a runner and they just don't wanna admit it?" A few nods of agreement followed this sentence as people muttered amongst themselves about where they thought the two missing teens had wound up varying from lost to the classic done a runner.

"Hell no, the druggie's probably shot himself up somewhere and they don't know where he is," Reece butted into the CHERUBs' conversation, "he's been off school loads and always comes back beat up, what else would he be doing? Besides, he's friends with the school's resident crazy – they suit each other down to the ground, they'll be off on some psychedelic high or something praising the moon and the stars and everything else on God's green Earth."

"He's a druggie? Seriously? Wouldn't think it to look at him, he's bloody fit for one of them if he is. Have you seen him run that assault course?" Paul threw in, "He's amazing,"

"Yep," Reece said, "and he cheats, he has to run it twice for cutting bits out of it nearly every time – haven't you noticed? Hopefully this lot will sort him out, he was an alright kid till he got into drugs, you know the sort I mean right? That was Rider about a year ago, then his Uncle died and that was it."

"I thought his Uncle was still alive, that's what he told me earlier," James interjected, confusion marring his features, "he never said the guy was dead."

Reece nodded happily, "Probably too high to remember, his Uncle died in a car accident a year ago, Alex hasn't been right since, got no family left - lives with this American who's known him since he was little. I reckon that's what pushed him into drugs, he never knew his parents and then his Uncle ups and dies on him. That's gotta mess you up."

James was sure the kid wasn't high earlier, he'd seen people high a few years ago with Nicole and Alex did not look high, at all. So who was telling the truth? You don't exactly lie about people dying, not unless you're one sadistic bastard, but if the rest of Alex's school seem to think his Uncle's dead then why was Alex claiming the man was alive? And if Rider was lying, then what the hell was he trying to hide? There's not much that'd make you claim dead family members were alive or alive ones were dead if Alex's version was true, spying was one but there weren't many others. And if Alex was involved in anything then the kid was a good actor having them lot convinced he was a druggie.

One thing was for certain, Alex Rider was quickly becoming the most interesting person at Brecon Beacons and life for the 21 teenage spies was sure as hell about to get interesting. Like it wasn't already.

.................................

_Oh look – I didn't stick to my plan AT ALL barring the very first part of it!_

_Love ya, and reviews are gold people! 132 already! I know I don't deserve them AT ALL – but please?_

_Ldf x_


	14. The only ones?

_Right, so as you all know I lost all my work...this is my attempt to pull all my half done chapters back and make them into full ones I can post. Hopefully this one will work out, I have the plan for it anyway...Oh and I sorted the whole uncle thing in the last chapter – I think..._

_**Thanks to Demicat for the idea towards the end of the chapter :)**_

...

Tom and Alex's new campsite was, amusingly enough, merely a 5 minute walk from K Units hut, meant they had to be pretty quiet but with Wolf off tormenting the other kids there wasn't that much danger of them being caught. Only Fox cared enough to go looking, and no one ever thought to look in these sorts of places – he'd survived hiding under Major Yu's bed after all. So far K Unit's hut had had some interior decorating done and a bit of a sort out, namely a clothes swap. Alex had no doubt they knew it was him but they still hadn't started looking for him properly. He knew about the two that had been sent on the first day, they weren't hard to hear, and there'd been a couple out every day since then, but never for long and never even close to the unit huts.

The only thing he was concerned about was how they'd found out about his bullet wound. He'd edited his file from MI6 getting rid of any mention of that and his time with SCORPIA. The only other thing he wanted to know was what MI5 had to do with any of this. They'd never used him before, and why send two schools just to cover for him? Surely Brooklands alone would have been enough, a class trip to cover him getting some more, rather pointless, training. Although there was something about that school, even if they were a sports academy or something they shouldn't be able to keep up with him. He didn't know of anyone anywhere who ever had, more so now that MI6 had gotten hold of him.

"Tom?"

"Yeah?" He replied, groaning as he put his leg into the puddle he'd been trying to avoid all morning.

"Do you think there's something funny about that other school?"

"Not really, why?" He asked still moping about his now wet, as well as cold, leg. Honestly, why Alex couldn't have found a drier spot was beyond him.

"They're just so damn secretive, and Blunt mentioned MI5 the other day, they've never had anything to do with me until this and they can keep up with me. As in they don't actually struggle they just manage, heck one of them can match me stride for stride when he tries,"

"So?" Tom shrugged, "Maybe they're sporty or something, it's not really worth worrying about, they don't know anything about you do they?"

Alex sighed, "No, but there's something fishy about them,"

"Al, you're always paranoid, just leave it," Tom laughed, "besides, it's not like you're gonna be seeing much of them anymore is it? There's what 3 days left before we all leave?"

"Point taken – so, feel like losing again?" Alex smirked at the look on Tom's face. "You know I have a point, you've not won once the entire time we've been here."

The other boy glared in reply and grabbed hold of his best friend's hand vowing that he would not lose this time.

He did.

...

*******_ 2 days ago _*******

The first expression on Wolf's face when he walked into his hut was shock. The second was disbelief. The third was anger. And the fourth, pure unadulterated rage. Behind him his team mates craned their necks to see around the older man into the hut. Their beds had been pushed to the very back wall creating two doubles, the sheets stitched together and a spare blanket folded into a heart on each of them. Fox suppressed a smirk recognising Alex's work and glanced around the rest of the room. Rules for strip poker had been taped to the wall, thank god it was only 5 more days till they left, none of them could take much longer with 60 bratty teenagers. Although the bets better have been resolved before the end. Too much money had been entrusted to Eagle to let them all leave without finding anything out.

At least this resolved the question of whether Alex was still on the grounds. No one else would have the balls to do this and if he'd left he wouldn't be coming back, even to prank them. Although looking at Wolf's face the boy could probably have found a different way to let them know he was alright. Unless he was suicidal. Then he'd probably gone about it the right way. 5 more days. They only had to get through 5 more days. They could live with that. He hoped. Although Wolf surviving 5 more days of Alex's pranks, maybe it would be a good idea to get out of here, at least until the end of the week...it might be safer for both his body and his sanity. Especially his sanity.

********_Now_**********

The bets placed about the intelligence of the spies were making many of the soldiers, who had yet to see a move towards either group, were understandably getting nervous and tensions were high as men started worrying about whether they'd had too much faith in Double 0 Nothing. Eagle's bet on MI5s miracle children was starting to look more and more idiotic as none of the 20 teenagers had shown any inkling of realising that Alex wasn't just another school kid. None of the kids had picked up on any of the tension though, they were way too eager to just get home and forget about all of this. The soldiers' attitudes to them were taken as the men being desperate for the kids to leave and just generally sick of their presence. This was only by those that paid any attention of course, namely James and a few of the other CHERUBs – the kids from Brooklands just couldn't give a damn.

A few of the soldiers who had bet on Alex to win were considering launching a search party – if he wasn't there he wasn't exactly gonna be working out who those spies were no was he? There were plans for a few of them to go searching later on that day, maybe drop a few subtle hints the teen's way, let him know that the other kids were, well, not exactly your bog standard teenager. It's not cheating unless you tell him, well that was the rule they were sticking to and they'd swear down that's what they all agreed to at the start if it came down to it.

...

In the huts that night 58 teenagers griped and moaned about the two in their group that had caused them to be running the assault course for 4 hours straight because they hadn't come back. Not to mention Alex's history becoming a hot topic amongst the CHERUBs and the others in their hut. So far all the 20 spies knew for definite was that the boy was an orphan, his Uncle had died a year ago, although as pointed out he could have another, and he lived with an American called Jack. Everything else was still up in the air – including his druggie status.

The next morning rolled round with the customary fire hose wakeup call and still no Tom or Alex. With only 3 days left however nobody really cared, whatever they had left to throw at them it wasn't worth worrying about the two idiots who if they forgot when they were supposed to come back, which James knew they didn't, were hardly going to remember to get on the buses to leave. They'd be in for hell when the SAS got hold of them and it would be more than everything they'd been put through.

For lack of anything else to talk about the CHERUBs set about discussing the mystery of Alex. Just when you thought you'd figure him out he changed. When you got to grips with that something new happened. Alex Rider was something of an anomaly.

"Don't you think he's a bit off though? Nothing about him matches up,"

"That or these kids just hate him – he's not exactly your typical teenager is he?" James wasn't entirely sure why he was defending the other boy, they were never gonna see each other again in 3 days time, what was the point? Something about him had obviously made an impression on the blond teen, whether that was a good thing would remain to be seen.

"Well yeah bu-"

Whatever was about to be said was cut off by screaming SAS men ranting about stupid, immature kids who think it's funny to disrupt the only rest time they got and who the hell did they think they were throwing smoke grenades at this time of night? Didn't they know that they had better things to do than deal with snotty nosed kids who shouldn't even be here? If this was the youth of today then God help this country come the next war – there'd be no one capable of fighting in it! They were all idiots with no brain cells who'd never get anywhere in life if they didn't get their acts together!

"Shut up!"

The presence of this new voice took most everyone in the room by surprise and quelled even the SAS men's screaming as they all turned to look at one pissed off Wolf, flanked by the rest of his unit with a glare that looked as if it could kill. No one was stupid enough to carry on talking.

"Stop shouting at the kiddies, it was the Rider kid, it's his favourite hobby, well that and hitting on Eagle here," the man in question let out an indignant snort which was all but ignored by the rest of the room, "he's in the woods somewhere – we've gotta go find him. Orders from SO apparently. Anyone that doesn't help is on punishment duty, and that one came from a bit closer to home – he's sick of Blunt getting on at him,"

The men just stared at Wolf with expressions ranging from anger, to shock, to disbelief.

"Do I have to say it again? Get gone!" Wolf roared, sending the SAS men running into the woods to prevent the notoriously ferocious K Unit leader away from them. The teenagers stood around uncertain of what to do, only relaxing when the man stalked out with the rest of the unit following him. Conversations immediately broke out amongst the teenagers as the implications of what Wolf had said just sank in. Alex Rider had pranked the SAS.

"Bloody hell, there's definitely something up with that kid," Murmurs of agreement rippled throughout the room as similar conversations took place with the Brookland teens drifting towards sleep after only a few minutes.

"You're telling me, is he suicidal or something? Maybe he is a druggie – you'd have to be off your head to screw with those guys,"

And so Alex was once again the hot topic of discussion, although James for his part stayed out of it, SO, where had he heard that before? And more importantly why did they care about this Rider kid? There's not much you can get mixed up in to the degree that Alex appeared to be, spying was one, and drugs the other. But if Alex wasn't a druggie then...no, he couldn't be, they were the only ones...weren't they?

...

"Hello? Who's this? How did you get this number? Hello?"

"Tell me why I'm here,"

The secretary gave a nervous gulp as Alex's venom filled voice came through to her. The inevitable had occurred. Alex Rider wanted answers.

...

_Demicat gave me the smoke grenade idea and lead to the last thousand words so thank you very much and have some cookies! *grins* Although I still needed upwards of 200 words to get it to a decent length but you got me out of a rut so thank you! xxx_

_Please review!_

_Ldf x_


	15. I know who you are!

_I don't have an excuse…well I do but given how long it's been I'm not gonna bore you with it and say that my laptop is with the computer repair man so this may or may not be any good! Besides, it's a bit jumpy cos I'm trying to finish this off because much as I love it I've been neglecting everything else because of this one (mainly because it's readers of this one that kick my arse into gear so that this gets written – even at the expense of homework)_

…..

"Was it quite necessary to scare my secretary like that Mr Rider?"

The glare that Alan Blunt could hear on the teen's face was enough to tell him that yes, it was necessary and no, I am not going to apologise no matter what you say, and yes, I am not going to stop calling until you give me some answers. You know, the sort of glare that most teenagers dream of perfecting but few actually achieve it successfully. Well, that's the sort of glare that was currently on Alex's face. And currently the glare that was almost audible down the phone.

"Very well, but this was not our decision, at least not directly. There's other people who can answer your questions far better than I can Mr Rider – and I believe you know who they are."

"Don't play games with me Blunt. You know what I want so just give it to me." Alex barely contained a growl as he spoke to the deliberately infuriating

"Contact MI5 – they'll give you the number you need. Good night Mr Rider,"

Rather sensibly the phone was put down before Alex had a chance to react. The next morning there was a rather large hole in the wall by the phone and Alex had wound up having to go get bandaged up, claiming he fell, not that anyone believed him. After all, why else would the druggie be in the infirmary other than overdosing? It's not like he'd ever be seriously hurt, probably had a bad trip and decided to take it out on a tree. As it turned out MI5 had been even less helpful than Blunt, merely telling him that it was a good opportunity for him to train and gave them the chance to help some other agents out. A group called CHERUB. A group of kiddie spies who actually wanted to be involved in all of this. What the hell?

….

James was still undecided about the curiosity that was Alex Rider. He had a hell of a lot of balls going off and hiding in the woods. Not a move to make him popular though so he doesn't care about that. There's no way he's a drug addict with the level of fitness he had, besides he'd never been high the entire time they'd been at the camp, and with only 2 days left he was either one hell of a good actor or not on drugs at all. And no one could act that well if they were high. Not enough to hide it from 20 trained CHERUB agents anyway. Then there was the paintball, it had to have been Alex. Never mind what they were calling him. It had to have been. Which means he knows the soldiers here. No way was he anyone's son, although he'd heard that one floating about somewhere, which meant he'd trained here. But why on Earth would he do that? Heck, he wouldn't choose to come here again and this was his job!

Someone sat down next to him but James barely noticed. When he finally turned and looked at the intruder it was one very smug looking Alex Rider.

"So, fancy telling me about this CHERUB group? No? Alright then, how about I tell you what I know? You're a bunch of idiots who think spying's a game. You've got no idea what you're doing and no clues about the real world whatsoever. You go on missions that don't even touch the real stuff and get decorated for it with your fancy t shirt ranking system. You think you're all so great, but you know what super spy? You just got outed by Brookland's resident druggie. So much for you all being so great. You didn't even make it hard."

Alex scoffed and walked out, straight past a bunch of gobsmacked SAS who realised that this was the kid they'd been forced to look for in the rain yesterday. But he was here. Why were they looking for him? He wasn't missing! He was with the rest of the idiots, probably celebrating the mess he'd made of the latest training exercise, and they'd been out looking for the brat! What the hell was Wolf playing at? A few made swipes to grab the boy but he was already past them, out the door, and sprinting towards wherever it was he'd been spending his time.

James meanwhile was trying to decide exactly what he was supposed to be feeling after Alex's little bombshell. Well, maybe little was the wrong word, try huge. No one should know that. CHERUB was a secret, what was he doing knowing what was going on? He was just a kid! A stupid kid who happened to be in very good shape and like screwing around. So he can keep up with CHERUBs, maybe he was in some football academy or something, and for screwing around? Well maybe there was some truth in regards to the drugs. Maybe he wasn't on them, but he could have been. Cannabis could screw your brain up permanently couldn't it? See, the only other explanation was that Alex was also a spy, and that, well that, was completely ludicrous! Why would CHERUB exist if there were kids like Alex all over the place?

…..

"Zara? There's a call coming through from Brecon Beacons. There's no scheduled report is there?" Zara's newest assistant asked her, not quite entirely with the campus system yet.

"No but patch them through – it's bound to be something stupid that James has gone and done or something idiotic like that."

Zara picked up the phone in her office and sighed, preparing herself for the screaming that was almost certain to come, after all when had James ever managed to keep himself out of trouble? She was surprised it had been this long before she got a complaint about him. Most of the time she was having to get them to stand in an orderly queue and wait their turn to complain.

"Good evening. Alex Rider here, do you wanna tell me what the hell I'm doing in the middle of nowhere surrounded by SAS and little kiddie spies who actually _like_ and _choose _to do the job I've been trying to get out of ever since I got involved. Yeah, it's not hard to figure out that you've got a cushy little set up wherever you are. State of the art facilities? No teachers who want to know why you're never in school? A nice little ranking system? Your black shirt superstars? Sound familiar? Oh sorry, I forgot my manners, how terribly rude of me, Alex Rider, and you are?"

"Zara Asker – now how the hell did you get this number?"

"It's really not that hard when you've got contacts at MI5, even easier when they think you're gonna blow their secret. So, what I wanna know is why, if you're the fantastic child spy training centre they claim you are, I'm here and still being used. You see, it doesn't seem to make sense, if you've got all these highly trained, dedicated child spies then what do you need me for?"

Alex leant against the wall casually, absentmindedly tracing around the hole he'd made the night before. It seemed like so long ago but the annoyance was still fresh in his mind. He didn't want to be angry yet, he wanted _all _the facts before he did that. Because he was going out with a bang.

…

Someone, somewhere had decided Eagle could be let out of the infirmary and the man decided to go on a hunt for Cub. From what he'd heard the teen had been hiding, then showed up yesterday out of the blue, only to disappear again as soon as anyone tried looking for him. Surely though, the kid couldn't be that hard to find? There were cameras everywhere and if him showing up today was anything to go by the kid wanted to be found. He was actually quite surprised Fox hadn't done it yet, the man was generally quite protective of the young spy. Hopefully everything that had gone on here hadn't changed that, he knew some people in the Intelligence services and they needed every friend they could get. It wasn't the most user friendly of occupations.

"Alex? You about? I'm not angry, I'm actually quite impressed. I've been reading your file, it's rather colourful actually. A bit of a turn around from Double 0 Nothing eh? Scorpia, nasty buggers they are, wanna let me in on why we didn't know you'd been shot? Well actually, I wanna know what the hell you were doing so they'd contemplate shooting you. They don't normally go after teenagers who live in London. in fact, they don't normally go after teenagers either. Tell you something though – Wolf is pissed as hell that he doesn't know so I'd consider hiding out until you can get away. But then, if you do that how will you know whether you were right or not."

He was currently stood by his unit's hut, yelling madly into the trees like an over excited toddler who has a secret that he just can't keep a secret. There was a shuffling in the woods and a branch snapped. Distantly Alex heard his shouting but couldn't be bothered answering, he only had to last a couple more days then he could go and hide and forget about the shitty life he was in. He could hand over to this group of super spies now, maybe get back to a normal life. Huh. Normal? Like that was ever gonna happen. It wasn't like he could just go back to school and forget about it all and fit right back in where he left off. He lost that luxury when MI6 came knocking on his door all those years ago.

"Alex? I figured you wanted answers – yeah I know I know, Eagle actually came up with something smart – don't suppose you fancy telling me how far you've got. If only to see who's gonna win this bet."

Alex coughed. Eagle turned towards the sound and carried on walking but didn't come across the teen. Wherever he'd been when Eagle had heard him he'd moved. Presumably desperate to stay away for as long as possible. And if that was the case then it seemed as if dear old Cub had finally realised what was going on. Alex was furious. As if they were betting on whether he'd figure out how badly he'd been screwed over. Was it funny to them? It seemed to be to the big man in the sky who organised his life and dealt him this deck. First coming here, then K Unit and now finding out that there were loads of kid spies and he didn't need to be doing this whatsoever. Well, maybe it was time the men in suits got a turn at the crappy side. Maybe he could have his turn at getting to screw the man over. It'd be worth it, wouldn't it?

….

Late that night as 20 teenagers slept, succumbing to the effects of the sedative Alex had managed to get into their food, bags were ripped open, CHERUB tee shirts were gathered up, mobile phones were stolen and photos were viewed and either discarded, or saved to be used later that day. The rest of the hut remained oblivious throughout and Alex simply walked out the door with his goodies without a care in the world. It was time for some fun, it might even get Alan Blunt's face to contort into something called an emotion.

…

_Feel free to scream at me, rant, rave, whatever I don't care! Hopefully it wasn't too horrendous as it was written in one sitting without editing and on 5 hours sleep!_

_Ldf x_


	16. Play time

_I wrote this in just over half an hour on write or die (I thought you might appreciate a quick update and that's the only way I can do it…and even then I have to have it be the strictest there is else I just slack off). Hopefully it's alright, it was kinda a mad frenzy to get it written…._

…

The next morning the normally tidy hut was in a complete state of disarray. The students there stared at their bags in despair. What the hell had gone on the night before? Who would be so immature as to throw their belongings everywhere the day before they went home? If they had that big of a problem then it would have happened earlier so couldn't they have just dealt with it and left alone until they all went home? As it was they were gonna be in trouble now for having their hut in such a mess and you could guarantee that will Eagle's return it was going to be inventive. More than likely humiliating. And almost guaranteed to be cold and wet. Such a great start to the day.

James was the first one to work out what was missing and thumped the wall in frustration. It had to have been him. He was the only one who would. Who else would know exactly what to take? Phones with campus pictures on, their tee shirts, anything that could possibly be linked back to MI5/CHERUB. James cursed when he realised exactly what else was missing from his bag. Fantastic. This was so far from good it was unbelievable.

"What the hell?" Someone else had worked out what the only stuff missing was. "Who the hell?"

As if called by the shouting Eagle appeared with the fire hose ready to berate them for not being up and ready. When he saw the bags his eyes lit up. So what if it wasn't their fault? They shouldn't have made a mess of the place. Especially not on his first day back babysitting. He'd missed being able to soak kiddies and see the looks on their faces as he woke them up ludicrously early in one of the worse ways possible. This day was beginning with a good start. Annoyed wet kiddies who were probably mutinous by now. Still no Cub though. Ah well.

Outside the dry kids looked on in sympathy as the CHERUBs came out sopping wet and dripping. As Eagle emerged with the fire hose they quickly looked away and stood to attention in an attempt to avoid the same fate. Not that it worked. Once again Eagle had managed to soak ever kiddie within minutes of them being awake and was looking rather pleased with himself as he did so. Well, at least hey knew he was back and wasn't to be messed with. Not that he ever was. He was hard he was.

"Good morning kiddilets. I hope you had a nice rest. But now you're all awake I suppose we'd better let you go to breakfast. But the thing is, we need you to do the assault course first, and we need to eat. So, you need to wait here until we're back. Then once you've run the course you can go back and have your breakfast – if of course there's any left."

With that, K Unit departed and left the shivering teens to their own devices. If they had any brains then they'd go get changed, but then again having brains wasn't the best thing to have here since they would be getting wet again, no doubt about it. They were off back on the zip wire, but this time it ended in a pool of water not a crash mat. Forgive them for wanting to spice things up. Not that the kids would appreciate the fact that they were getting a bath and therefore a break whilst still being in the company of the soldiers. Never mind that the water was going to be cold, and they'd probably all be freezing once they got out of it. And that if it was raining it was a moot point anyway and there was no point plunging them into it. Unless of course they decided to fill it with ice. That could work. But that would only be satisfying if they got to throw Alex into it as well. SO were on their backs again because the kid hadn't been found and returned to their care.

Once inside the mess hall K Unit soon began to see why there were more soldiers than usual clustered around the back wall. Number one: it was currently the location of one Alex Rider. Number two: surrounding said child was a myriad of things relating to, you guessed it, the 'secret' organisation that had also sent their kids to train here. Number three: Alex Rider looked pissed. Wait, doesn't that mean they should be running away? Wasn't that generally the safest plan when he looked like that? At least it tended to be, and if the debacle in the woods was anything to go by then maybe they should be backing away and leaving the stony faced teen to his own devices. At least they could genuinely tell SO that they knew where the annoying sod was now.

Looking at the collection around the boy Wolf couldn't help but feel a little bit of respect for the boy. He'd managed to work it out anyway. Around him quite a few soldiers were groaning as they realised that it meant they'd have to pay up thanks to that stupid bet they'd made a month ago. What fun, lovely start to the day that was. Knowing that you'd soon be hounded for money based on a stupid bet made about pint sized kiddie spies who knew far more than they should and were generally a pain in the back side.

"Don't try anything like this again."

Alex stared straight into his unit leaders eyes as he spoke, his voice filled with such a ferocity that even Wolf had to admit was a bit disconcerting and he unconsciously moved to take half a step back. Alex managed to catch the movement though, and smirked. Good to know he still had it. After all, he had to keep in practice for the next time MI6 wanted him. He wasn't thick, he knew he'd never get out of it now he was in it. They wouldn't let him, and if he was honest he did kinda like it. Except for the nearly dying part. That part was a bit naff. But the rest of it was alright, he'd probably like it more if they actually treated him like a human being though, that was always better. Maybe getting paid too. And the chance to actually attempt to complete his school work. He was going to need a job someday. He couldn't rely on this gig forever, especially not when he was doing it on no pay. There was always the chance he would die of course. Then it wouldn't matter. But, look on the bright side Alex, at least you can expose that stupid group who reckon they can do his job.

"This my dear friends, is what you have been hiding from me while I've been here. You're training a bunch of kiddie spies as well. Not that I don't appreciate the challenge, but it begs the question - why are they here? Because from the photos I've seen they've got more than enough equipment at their swish base to train the idiots, so why are you taking up the slack for them? Wouldn't it have been easier? Or did you all wanna see what would happen when I found out? Is this satisfying that? Are you glad you got the chance to see it?"

Wolf noticed that the crowd had started to thin out as the true extent of Alex's anger was revealed. Fox had remained by his side, as had Eagle and Snake but the majority of the crowd had started moving backwards. Clearly less than eager to get onto he wrong side of the teen and wind up spending time in the infirmary. Not that that was always a bad thing, it was just it meant that when you came back you had to build your fitness back up again and it was always hell.

...

Outside the collection of teenagers were all stood shivering but when a soldier walked past them carrying a CHERUB shirt, the 20 kids in question froze as the implications washed over them. Someone knew, someone had to have known to be able to go get those shirts to be able to give it to the soldier. And the only two people missing were Alex and Tom. And James already knew that Alex had found out about them. He was gonna be murdered for keeping it quiet though. He was never flavour of the month on campus at the best of times and this looked set to make sure he kept that record.

"Have you ever heard the like? Child spies, how much more desperate can the government get? There's already one kicking about and from what I can gather he's a hell of a lot better than that lot."

The motley group of kids suddenly became insanely interested in the conversations that were being had as they were walked past. Child spies? More than one group? And in the case of the CHERUBs, someone better than them? Why were they there then? In the midst of these musings Wolf returned, with a very smug looking Alex Rider in tow. IN contrast to the rest of the teens he looked well rested and, well, dry. Sometimes life just wasn't fair. And this was one of those times.

"So, who's the owner of all these shirts? Oh I know, it's the bunch of you that's been calling yourselves Henderson's Academy. Lacking imagination there guys. Not like it's far removed from your true name is it? And you're supposed to be an intelligence task force able to go under cover and catch bad guys? And you couldn't even keep it secret from me? I'm just a kid! Admittedly a very good looking highly intelligent kid. But still. I'm not one of you, but I still worked it out. By the way, Wolf, have you called Alan yet? Let him know that you've found me and that their precious little toy is safe and sound?"

The following silence was deafening. CHERUBs and Brooklanders alike stood still as they tried to process the information Alex had just given them. It wasn't long before they were trying to work out who Alan was and why Alex was his toy. And why he was looking for him. Whatever the reason it probably wasn't good. Not from the way Alex was acting about it, looking extremely annoyed for a start.

"Oh yeah, did I mention I'm MI6's super spy who's been doing the work you're not good enough for, for years?"

Alex gave a mock salute and jogged off towards the trees. No one had the thought to follow him and find out where he'd gone or what the hell he meant with his last statement. Not even the usually reasonably quick thinking CHERUBs. Wolf looked towards them all with an evil grin on his face.

"What we said earlier still stands. Get yourselves over to that assault course before we decide that you need to run it twice. And I can almost guarantee that by doing that NONE of you will be getting breakfast."

Well conditioned by now all the kids took off for the assault course, the soldiers following behind at a more leisurely pace. After all, once the kids left they'd be right back into full on all the time, not just these little bits of intense training they'd been doing while they were on babysitting duty. Vaguely aware of the grumbles still coming from the kids they each kept an eye out for Alex given that he'd disappeared once again. Serge wasn't gonna be happy with that. Blunt was on the phone everyday wanting to know whether they'd found the damn kid yet. As of yet there'd been no hinting that perhaps Blunt himself was the reason Alex was hiding, but the temptation was getting greater with each snooty phone call.

...

"How the hell? What the hell? How does he know that? He shouldn't know that! Zara is going to kill us!"

The CHERUBs had seemingly abandoned their attempts to keep absolutely everything under wraps, letting out the chairwoman's name without a thought for the other teens that were currently with them. How could this have happened?

...

As Alex wandered back to his campsite, and Tom, he started thinking. According to the Zara woman Alex had spoken to last night it wasn't her decision to have the CHERUBs train with him. That had come from their ethics committee. Ethics committee! He didn't have one of those. He didn't seem to have anything they had though. Mission controllers, the option of pulling out, being able to refuse. Of course they all tried to pass the blame, none of them could ever take responsibility could they? And apparently it was at the suggestion of MI6 that they took Brookland there and not a different school. Well, lets see how they feel now their secret has been exposed.

…..

_Thoughts? Criticisms? Ideas for how you want it to end? Let me know!_

_Ldf x_


	17. You're not so Clever

_Okay – pick up a gun, paintballs and fire away. I will not wear protective clothing. Make me pay for not posting. I can take it. Also, for those of you complaining that I'm making Alex better than CHERUB – well, one of them had to find out first, I made it Alex, CHERUB will get their time over the next few chapters!_

_Also, this has been sat at about 400 words for nearly 6 months, I completely forgot about it! And what with getting a job and starting college (A levels are awful) things have been incredibly hectic around here!_

…

James sauntered up behind Alex, grinning wildly and looking incredibly pleased with himself over something.

"So, super spy, are you the kid that shot the prime minister?" He asked casually. "Pretty impressive, suicidal, but impressive." Alex didn't reply. "Oh come on, you know what we are, I just wanna know who you really are. Because I've got a lot of money riding on it." Alex still didn't reply. "Alex?"

Alex turned slowly. "You really wanna know who I am? I'm the 14 year old who was sent off to the place his uncle was killed, who was trained his entire life to be a spy, who should have died on a plane with his parents as a baby, who had his uncle shot by an assassin, was nearly killed himself by an assassin and is blackmailed into mission after mission after mission, that was betrayed by my Godfather, I've been shot, stabbed, beaten and tortured. I was taken by one of the most criminal organisations in the world and turned into a killing machine. And I trained at this camp a year ago, Double 0 Nothing. Saved Wolf's sorry ass, for all the good that did me, then got packed off to Cornwall to court death with a maniac."

He tensed. "Everything that your precious ethics committee deems is too dangerous falls to me. I don't get a choice in any of this. You chose this. I didn't. You want to be here. You think there's something noble and good about serving your country. I just want to go home and have my family back, to not have assassins after me, to not have to hide, and to get a damn education. So yes, I did shoot the prime minister. Does that answer your question?"

Alex stared at the other teen. "Because this coming out just now just lost me any chance at a normal life I might have had. Might have been my own fault, but I can't go back to school now, I'll just wind up living here until I'm 18 or something. Better than being MI6's pet I suppose."

James shifted uncomfortably and kept his gaze trained firmly on the ground. "Look mate, I'm sorry, I'm no good at this touchy feely stuff. I'll leave you to it. I'm around if you want to talk though. Just, maybe you should think about your options."

The teen jogged off, casting one look back towards the forlorn teen who in the space of the last minute had managed to get himself into the tree and was already lost in his own world, contemplating God knows what and starting resolutely at the sky as if it contained all the answers..

"James, whatever you do, just don't die."

James turned at that last statement. An odd thing to come from a teenager, even one as battle worn as Alex seemed to be.

"Not planning on it!" James laughed. "At least not for a very long time."

"I mean it. Don't die. There's nothing glamorous or glorious about dying for your country. It's just cold and dark and nothing good comes of it." Alex jumped out of the tree. "Don't die."

Whatever James said in reply was lost by the blaring of a klaxon and a crackling announcement stating that every single one of those bloody kids had better be by that assault course in 5 minutes. Or else.

…

Alex's words haunted James for the rest of the afternoon. Something in the teen's voice told him that Alex had first hand experience that was way more than anything he'd ever encountered at CHERUB. The sort of experience that made you realise you were never too young to die. And there were always people that were willing to hurry that time along.

A sharp crack accompanied by an overwhelming spike of pain brought him back to reality.

"Fuck!" James' ankle was caught in the net with his foot facing the wrong way. "Jesus fucking Christ that hurts!"

Snake jogged over, groaned and turned to face Wolf who had come up behind him.

"We are in so much shit." He said grimly.

"Eagle! Go get someone from the infirmary, the rest of you bugger off and go play with your dollies or something!" Wolf yelled, levelling his best glare on the teens most likely to protest. "Now!"

James moaned from his spot on the net drawing the SAS men's attention back towards him. The teens slowly trudged off, all peering at James like he was one of those road accidents that you know you shouldn't stare at but you just can't pull your eyes away. Continued glares and a few implied deaths and they were gone.

"Oh Christ almighty," Wolf muttered looking at James, "Where the hell is Eagle?"

As if summoned by some almighty force Eagle chose that second to arrive with two of the guys from the infirmary hot on his heels.

"You deal with him," Wolf said gruffly, "I'm off to let the higher ups know we maimed one of the kids, may as well get it over with."

Leaving the med people to do, well, whatever med do in cases like this, Wolf stomped off, in a dignified and not at all huffy manner you understand, more of an 'I'm annoyed and if you talk to me I'm liable to break your neck' kind of way, cursing at the stupidity of anyone and everyone he could think of, and in particular those fantastic people in the intelligence services who thought it was a good idea to send kids to an SAS camp. Did they not think he had better things to do than to look after stupid kids who weren't even competent enough to keep themselves from getting injured going over a bloody assault course!

Of course they didn't, cos he was just a soldier, albeit a very highly trained one, and he was there to take orders, so if the powers that be decided it then it happened. Didn't mean he had to like it though.

All too soon he found himself knocking on the door and being stared down by the sergeant, his gaze seemed to bore hole's into Wolf's head and it took a large amount of self restraint to note tear his own eyes away and stare down at the floor.

"Wolf. You do realise that this kid is one of their best agents?"

"Yes sir." Wolf said stiffly, holding himself impossibly still as he braced himself for the worst.

"And that this could quite possibly be the worst thing that could have happened if it wasn't for the Cub thing?"

"Yes sir."

"And off the record I'm glad because it means we won't have to have them again and I can finally get back to running my camp like it always should have been run before Blunt and his cronies stuck there noses in?"

Wolf allowed himself a slight smile, a fraction of a second later it was gone. "Yes sir."

"Good. Now get out of here before I change my mind about punishing you and have your entire unit on mess duty for a month."

Wolf saluted. He let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding and left.

…

There was a lot of chatter amongst the kids the next morning, rumour had it they were going home early cos that kid had got hurt so badly, what was his name, Jim or something, no, it was James, I'm sure of it, I heard he destroyed his knee cap, ha, if you want the real story then come to me, he shattered his hip is what it is, ripped a load of skin from the rest of his leg in the process, yeah right, it's true, I promise you, they airlifted him out and everything, oh my God, as if, did he really?

Wolf stared at them with something like amusement, but on his face it came out as something between a grimace and a snarl. He had no desire to stop the rumours, the more badly behaved they were the more he got to punish them and enjoy these last 3 days before he had to send them all home. Not that he wasn't glad to be free of him, because he was, but sometimes, just sometimes, he enjoyed seeing the looks on their faces when he sent them running round the assault course in the rain and the cold and the sleet and the wind. Call him sadistic if you will, but it was true.

He didn't actually have a plan for today, other than making them run until they puked, maybe sending the CHERUB kids round with their body weight in rocks on their backs as well, just for kicks, since the assault course was off limits now lest there were more injuries and more big boss men from the Intelligence services breathing down their necks demanding explanations as to why they had a teenager with a busted ankle and no explanation.

His eyes found Cub, stood off at the back of the group, practically ostracized by the others with what had been revealed. They'd been surprisingly accepting of it being the truth though, more than one kid had asked if they could become a spy too. From what Wolf could tell Alex had said no and told them exactly where to stick that idea. Even as he watched Alex melted back into the shadows and disappeared. Sometimes, for milliseconds only mind, even Wolf found himself feeling sorry for the kid. Not that he could admit it.

He turned back to the others and started yelling.

"Right! Pair up, grab your bag and start moving. You'll get lunch if and when I think you've worked hard enough. Now get your feeble little assess moving before I kick my boot up them and make you!" He glared particularly hard at those that he knew were most likely to resist and stared until everyone was moving. He barked orders at some of the other soldiers and stormed off to hunt for Alex. He was not sharing a bed with Eagle ever again, no way was that boy getting anywhere near his hut.

…

James woke up in white room, his ankle propped up on about 8 pillows (okay, 2), and Lauren curled up in a chair beside him. It took him a good few minutes to work out he was back on campus, and even longer to work out that it was night. The darkened lights and Lauren obviously sleeping apparently weren't big enough hints that that was the case, it took a good long look at the digital clock by his bed for him to finally work out that the 02:00 blinking on it meant AM, not PM.

He shifted uncomfortably and stared blankly at the ceiling, trying in vain to return to slumber. It was amazing how many things wound up going through your mind that would never happen in real life. Time travelling with an immortal man being one of those unrealistic probabilities that stopped his mind from resting and caused him to grow ever more frustrated with himself. His last thought before he finally did drift off into what was more than likely a drug induced sleep was that he wondered whether Alex was okay after everything that had gone on. Maybe there was a solution to that, but..for now…..maybe…..

When Lauren awoke 5 hours later with a God awful crick in her neck and cramped muscles James was fast asleep, murmuring nonsense to himself as he dreamed. Of what he dreamed, Lauren didn't care to imagine, lest she find her mind too traumatised by what it found there. She settled herself more comfortably, plugged in her iPod and grabbed hold of her brother's hand as she watched the sun rise on a new day. Hopefully one where her idiot brother managed to make it through without insulting, hurting or reducing someone to tears, something she was sure he could do even confined to a bed in the infirmary.

An hour later Zara came in and poked him awake.

"Tell me about Alex Rider."

….

_(Yes, I like beating on James, bit of a habit of mine I'm afraid!) (Also, the homage to Doctor Who there…I will work out a way to reference Torchwood as well at some point, maybe some others…)_

_And sorry, I know it's a bit choppy, but I couldn't get it any better because I completely forgot what I was planning for this chapter, I just knew where I needed to get it to by the end in 2 chapters or so and this was the only thing I came up with in the end. I'll try sort it out later but for now you've waited long enough for a chapter so enjoy!_

_Ldf x_


	18. Decisions, decisions

_Okay, this has been sat on my computer with nothing written on it for a ludicrous amount of time. I have been effectively guilted into writing it properly so here we go. (And I would promise to have the next and *hopefully* final chapter up within a fortnight but I highly doubt that it will happen, especially with my track record!)_

_Warnings for a bit of cussing, I know I never have before but figured I would this once _

…

The ride to the Brecon Beacons was even longer and more boring than James remembered. Or maybe that was just because this time he had the delightful company of his sister teasing him every 5 minutes about how he, the most experienced agent, was the only one that didn't make the full time. He winced as the bus went over a particularly nasty pothole and tried in vain to tune Lauren's inane chattering out. God he wished he'd brought his iPod, then at least he'd have an excuse to ignore it and close his eyes. Still, the pain meds weren't at all bad. You had to look on the bright side after all. Otherwise what else was there to live for?

…

Alex pulled himself up over the cliff with a groan and let himself drop to the ground. There were times when he really hated Wolf, and this coincidentally, was one of them, there was absolutely no reason for this hike, other than pure sadism on the older man's part, and he was rather sick of it. James had gone, well, somewhere, he wasn't exactly certain, and only Tom was speaking to him now, so while everyone else had a partner helping them out, he was left to struggle round alone. Not that he minded that exactly, it gave him time to think, but, he supposed he'd kind of hoped that the mini spies would accept him now, after all, he was one of them, well, sort of. It really wouldn't suck to have more friends.

Alex opened his eyes, looked up to Eagle's grinning face and promptly closed them again. This was not going to end well, and he'd rather not see it coming.

"Wakey wakey Cub, time to go walkies."

Alex's only response was to show Eagle his middle finger. He was not in the mood.

"Aww, don't be like that Cub. I've got something to show you." Eagle smirked.

Alex sighed and opened his eyes. "This better be good. I have 3 hours to do 1k, I was looking forward to a nap."

Eagle said nothing and just forced Alex to his feet and dragged him along as he ran into the tree line. Alex just looked resigned as they started picking their way through back towards the cliff face. Whatever the point of this was, he sure wasn't getting it. Eagle suddenly stopped and Alex slammed into his back. They were here then.

Alex looked around, from here you could see the house, and surrounding the house were at least 30 kids. He grimaced. Great, more CHERUB kids. He smiled a little as he saw James, propped up on crutches talking to a pretty blonde in a black tee. He couldn't see clearly enough from here to be certain but she looked enough like James even from here that he presumed she was his sister. He looked over at Eagle questioningly.

"So, why did you want to show me this?" He said exasperated. Sometime he did wonder how the man made it to the SAS.

Eagle grinned. "Because my dear little MI6 agent, they are all here to see you. Their boss wants to ask you to come and stay with them. Wanted to give you a bit of warning, and to let you know Sergeant says you can stay here now if you want. So, you might wanna go hide now, before people start asking you for a decision."

Alex stood gaping at the man next to him. Was that actual sensible advice coming from the guy? Eagle just shrugged and walked off. Alex remained standing. Did he really want to do this? Go and stay with all the other kids, do safe missions and know that he wasn't going to get kicked out of school? Somehow that felt too normal now, too safe, maybe he should just stay at the camp. He already had a codename and everything. He growled. Why did everyone like screwing with him?

Eventually he turned and walked off, heading towards the shooting range. He really needed to clear his head.

…..

James stood awkwardly on his crutches, still not completely used to relying on them to stay upright. He wasn't too pleased about being back here, even if it was only for a day, too many memories of being cold and tired and in pain. Okay, maybe he was a bit of a wuss. But it was cold, and rainy and his leg hurt and he wanted to go home.

Zara was inside the house, supposedly he and the rest of the CHERUBs that were here were supposed to be going and rounding up the others, in actuality they were all stood outside waiting to hear what the outcome was. As soon as Zara had heard about Alex she decided she wanted him, and she'd be damned if she didn't get him, she needed someone to teach her kids that this wasn't a game. Despite the fact that they'd seen their fair share of tragedy, James in Aero City and Gabrielle's stabbing, too many of the younger ones were cocky and arrogant and she wasn't going to lose any of them because of it.

Lauren stood next to James, looking around curiously. She was rather interested in this assault course considering the damage it managed to do to James, not that she was going to use it against him if she decided it wasn't difficult enough to warrant the injury of course, she just wanted to know. Her blonde hair was plastered to her head from the rain and her jacket really wasn't thick enough to keep the chill out of the air. She wandered off to the left a little and caught a glimpse of a tall wooden structure just poking out between the trees. So that was it. Huh, maybe it was pretty lethal.

Not for the first time she wished Bethany had been able to come, then at least she'd be able to have a conversation with someone who actually had a brain. James was a bit of a poor substitute. Not least because he really wasn't interested in the latest campus gossip. Honestly, what was it with boys and being completely and utterly boring? She pushed her hair off her face and looked around some more. Catching sight of the huts she shuddered. That settled it, she was definitely glad she didn't have to come. A month in a shared hut. Torture.

…

Half an hour later Alex finally left the range, feeling considerably better about the whole deal. He knew what he was going to do now. Shooting mindlessly at circles on the wall was a good way to make decisions, well, for him anyway. He just hoped he wasn't going to regret it. Tom had come in and tried to talk to him but gave up pretty quickly when he realised Alex wasn't in the mood for a chat. He'd spent the next two hours undisturbed, there seemed to be an unwritten agreement with the men that he was to left alone. He was thankful for that.

Alex walked over to the house slowly, avoiding the gaze of all the soldiers he passed, as he got closer to the house he heard the excited chatter of the CHERUBs. James saw him first and waved him over. Shrugging Alex walked over to meet him. It wasn't going to do any harm at this point.

"Hey, how's the leg?" Alex said, looking down at the cast encasing his friend's calf.

"Hurts like a bitch," James grinned ruefully, "Can't say the rain's making me feel any better either. You know why we're here I'm guessing. Can't see you coming over here without a reason. You're normally running yourself ragged showing the rest of us up. Am I right?"

Alex nodded silently.

"You made a decision?" James asked, slightly perturbed by the silence. He was used to the sarcastic comments and scathing remarks. Less so the straight answers and lack of speech.

Another nod.

"You gonna tell me?" He pushed, trying to get an actual answer out of Alex.

A shake this time.

"Alright then. So, how've you been?" James said, figuring he wasn't getting anywhere with that line of conversation.

Alex shrugged. "Not too bad, looking forward to the end of the stares from everyone though, been avoiding them all mostly, fed up with it."

James nodded. "Know the feeling. Can't say I like it either." He shifted a bit and grimaced. "I wish Zara would bloody well hurry up."

Lauren poked him with a glare on her face. Did he always have to be so thick? Honestly, boys.

"What? It's cold and wet and she gets to stay inside while we stand out here like muppets getting soaked."

"Well, you could go and sit on the bus, you know, like a normal person would." Lauren snapped back. "Then at least we wouldn't have to listen to you whinging. Nobody else is complaining."

Alex bit back a smirk as he watched James attempt to come up with a reply. In the end he just huffed and turned his back.

"Sorry about my brother, he's a bit of a prat, although I guess you know that since you've had to spend the last 3 weeks with him." Lauren said. "Most of us barely tolerate him; unfortunately he's got something of a good record so we've got no way of knocking him down a peg or two."

"He's not that bad really," Alex protested. "Nobody seems too traumatised after 3 weeks in the same hut as him with no respite. I've seen people snap in less time than that if someone was really bad."

"You've never had to deal with him when he's in a funk over losing his girlfriend." Lauren replied. "Trust me, then you'd see how bad he is, 3 weeks is nothing, I've had to put up with him my entire life. It's been torture. I'm amazed Kerry puts up with him to be honest. I'm just glad she manages it. I don't think anyone else could."

Alex's reply was cut off as the door open and Zara stepped outside, grimacing at the sudden onslaught of rain. Spotting Alex she started to walk over and the briefest flash of fear flitted across Alex's face. Time to face the music. Swallowing he walked over and met her in the middle of the driveway. Here goes nothing.

…..

Having failed to get through to Alex earlier Tom wound up staring at him from afar, as the other teen spoke to James, they had all been sent to pack their bags, but Tom was just wondering what on Earth was going through his best friend's head. Whatever it was, Tom hoped it wouldn't end too badly, things tended to end badly around Alex even though Alex had had enough problems for at least 10 lifetimes, he really could do without any more for a good few years, or the rest of his life really, but he knew that would never happen for him. He wasn't naïve enough to think that Alex would get a normal life now everyone knew his secret, not while MI6 were around anyway, he couldn't see them being too keen on letting him go. And where MI6 were present, so were Alex's problems.

He turned away. He couldn't be there for him any more, too many things had changed now, Alex had people who actually understood what he went through, he wasn't gonna need his geeky little sidekick any longer. He'd seen it in his friend's eyes, he wasn't going back to Brookland. Wasn't going back to London at all it seemed.

Tom walked into the hut and looked around, the other boys were laughing and joking as they rooted around for stuff that had managed to go missing despite all the inspections and the need to keep the place tidy. Sometimes teenage boys were an incredible species. He slipped through to his bunk and started loading his stuff into his rucksack. Tomorrow was going to be a long day.

….

_Okay, so that turned out a little more angsty than intended…still, it's got me where I needed to be to finish it off, so all is good. And if you don't like it, well, uh, tough I suppose because there's no chance that I'm rewriting it simply because it took me so damn long to write this version! (Alright, a night, but considering how long I spent trying to work out where to go with it it works out at months) I'm trying to do something with the CHERUB guys but I'm a bit stuck for ideas. (Also, I know it's rather OOC, for Alex especially, but I just want this thing finished!)_

_Ta very muchly,_

_Ldf xx_

_**(P.S. You guys have approximately until 48 hours after posting to decide where Alex goes. Majority vote wins. Then I start writing.)**_


	19. Goodbye and Good luck

_Okay, so, this is what the majority of you wanted, and what I was leaning towards so here goes nothing Thanks for the response to that last chapter as well, genuinely thought I would have lost a lot more of you by now I also realised, that amongst all this I'd completely forgotten about Jack…that is now rectified…somewhat…_

…

Alex looked around at the expectant faces of the CHERUBs, then back towards K Unit, lurking at the back in a failed attempt at being inconspicuous, and finally at the two people in front of him. One he'd known since he had started this whole business, no matter how rocky the relationship had been, the other he only knew a name and a job title. The news he had heard last night had confirmed his decision long before he had met the woman however.

He sent one final look in James' direction and started to open his mouth, the words sticking uncomfortably in his throat. He wasn't used to this, having more than one person vested in his future.

"I'm staying here. Not London, or with you guys. I'm staying here."

The words came out in a rush, almost tripping over each other in their haste, and he'd unconsciously shifted his gaze towards the floor, mentally shaking himself he looked back up, what had come over him lately? Why was he so concerned about what people thought of his actions? The shocked silence told him all he needed to know about exactly what people did think and, feeling everyone's gazes boring into his back Alex slipped off to the side and ducked behind the nearest building safe from the prying eyes and muttering that was starting up.

Recovering, Zara nodded tightly, turned, told the Sergeant to look after him, the man responded with an 'of course', and started cajoling the teenagers in her care to get moving and get themselves together. Zara headed back towards the bus and watched as the bunch of unruly teenagers made their way over towards the huts. At least they were listening for once. It made a nice change.

She jumped as she spotted a figure already on the bus. Alex. How on Earth had he gotten there so quickly?

"I don't mean I won't ever come. Just that I couldn't learn anything with you. I'll swing by and help you guys out sure, but living there? Having an ethics committee of all things? If I had an ethics committee every school child in this country would have suffered from small pox and almost certainly died. Considering the things I had to do to achieve that, I doubt you would have ever allowed it."

Zara looked at him uncomprehendingly.

Groaning, this was exactly why he hadn't planned on doing this, Alex explained again. "I'll come. I'll teach. I just won't be a CHERUB, I'll stay here, train, go off wherever MI6 send me, then I'll come back, and I'll teach them how to shoot, and how to think on their feet, and everything that they're going to need to actually stay alive and let them play at being spies for long enough so that they actually have a life to go to after it all ends."

Zara nodded. Alex disappeared from the bus before she even had chance to formulate a response. When her brain finally caught up with what had just happened Alex was by the huts, already indistinguishable from the others surrounding the area. Well, that was somewhat of a result, he wasn't completely going to ignore them all, and maybe, just maybe, she could persuade him to move there full time, and truly let her CHERUBs benefit from his experience. They were going to need a new training instructor soon anyway, he wouldn't be a bad catch for that at all…

….

Alex caught up with Tom about 20 minutes later, ready to break the news to his friend that he wasn't going back to Brooklands with him later that afternoon. Wasn't going back at all in fact. He was going to spend the next few years at least dressed in army combats, training and going on whatever suicidal mission MI6 cooked up for him next. Brooklands, actually school in any form, was off the cards for a good long time.

What he wasn't prepared for was the right hook that caught him just under the chin and sent his head reeling into the closest tree. Stars dancing in his vision he turned to his friend questioningly.

"You could have told me you bastard! Rather than just upping and leaving this morning without a word! Did you really think I wouldn't support you? Did you actually think that I'd've tried to stop you? After everything we've been through, everything you've been through, could you really not tell me!" Tom yelled, angrier than Alex had ever seen him. "Can you not trust me at all!"

Alex just stared, he tried to formulate a response, but no words came out. In the end he just shut his mouth and resumed staring.

"And now you can't even talk to me! Do I not even deserve an explanation? An apology? No? That's just great then, fan-bloody-tastic. Thanks a lot Alex. Thanks for nothing."

Tom turned and left, Alex's brain finally caught up with his ears and he ran after him, grabbing hold of his best friend's arm.

"I-"

"Just don't Alex," Tom muttered, pushing Alex's hand from his wrist, tears running down his face, "I already know what you're going to say, so spare yourself the energy and go talk to those spy friends of yours, that's where you're going isn't it?"

Alex shook his head frantically. "No, God no, I was never going to go there, I was tempted for a while yes, but I couldn't be me there, couldn't ever be comfortable. I'm not going back to London, I'm staying here, but I'm not going with them, I'll still be going on missions, but not as many, I'll be teaching mainly, and I could visit, you know, if you wanted me to, I don't blame you if you don't want me in your life any more, and, God Tom, say something. Jack's dead. Car crash, you're all I've got left. Please Tom, talk to me." Mentally Alex laughed at himself, fully aware of just how much of a teenage girl he sounded at that moment but somehow unable to care at all.

Tom just shook his head and walked off, leaving Alex feeling more dejected than he ever remembered being. He turned and slowly made his way to his own bunk, ready to move it all to wherever he got stuck this time round. He supposed he'd better get used to being called Cub then since it didn't look like he'd be making many trips to London. After all, now he was here all the time MI6 wouldn't even need him to come to the bank; they had the Segeant there all ready to pass on whatever the latest demand was, and it wasn't like he had Jack to visit either, drunk driver was what he had been told, it was only now though that it seemed to sink in, now that he'd told everyone he wasn't going back to London.

Sometimes life just sucked.

…

A few hours later, when the CHERUBs were filing onto the bus, Alex reappeared. He had come to see Tom and the rest of the Brookland teens off only to find himself faced with a brick wall and no response from any of them. Still, he had stayed until they disappeared off on their bus and then headed out to the assault course, running it time and time again until he could almost forget the way Tom had looked at him earlier on. Now however, his red rimmed eyes were the only sign that that anything had gone wrong.

Despite it all, he grinned at James who was struggling to manoeuvre around on his crutches. Seeing him James turned and cocked an eyebrow questioningly. His face too open and too honest for Alex to even think he wasn't sincere in his offer.

"You sure you don't wanna come? You look like you could use a friend."

Alex shook his head softly, despite the plea in the other boy's voice that made such a decision so tempting. "Nah, I belong here now, closest thing to a home I'll ever have, I'll see you again though, you guys will never be able to cope without me." He grinned, so cocky and self assured looking that he could almost believe it himself and waved at his friend.

James nodded and continued his somewhat disjointed ascent onto the bus, closely followed by his sister. Alex stood there until the bus pulled away half an hour later, and didn't move until it was long out of sight. Finally he turned round and made his way to the mess hall, hopefully there'd be something left before he started on the surprise night hike he'd heard was planned.

He smiled and started jogging, already planning ways he could infuriate Wolf now he had 24 hour access to the man. This was going to be fun, and if the heat ever got too high, he could just head off to CHERUB HQ for a few days and make good on his promise until all the fuss died down.

Sometimes, life just sucked, sometimes, however, life worked out just fine and that suited Alex perfectly. Lie wouldn't be worth living if it was perfect all the time now would it?

…

The bus back was oddly quieter than it had been on the way there, despite the addition of another 20 teens. James supposed it was something to do with the tiredness level of most of the people involved, and maybe even the shock value. It wasn't everyday you found out there was someone who would actually turn down CHERUB, James reasoned, not to mention that said person was a successful agent in their own right. As he drifted off to sleep he pondered over Alex's last words, what did he mean exactly that they'd mean again? What was he planning? And more to the point; was it going to be dangerous? It wouldn't surprise him…

Hundreds of miles away, unaware he was the subject of many people's thoughts, Alex Rider was in the middle of his first night hike as a full time resident of Brecon Beacons, for the first time in his life fully accepted by those around him, and without a care in the world other than not finishing last and ending up with kitchen duty for a week.

And he was loving every second of it.

…..

_And the scores for anyone that was interested:_

_SAS – 12_

_CHERUB – 11_

_OTHER – 6_

_Also, there will be a sequel, I just don't know how long it will be yet Thanks for sticking with this, even with the really long gaps between updates There is a little drabbley thing set 6 months after this, but not that related to it….apologies if you read it and missed the spoiler warning in the A/N at the top!_

_I know it's not quite as long as normal, but I've tried to wrap it up and still leave it open for the sequels I've been promising you, and there's not much more I can add to it either without trespassing across into one of those sequels!_

_Ldf x_


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